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THE BLUE JAYS 
IN THE SIERRAS 




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THE BLUE JAYS AT HOME 



THE BLUE JAYS 
IN THE SIERRAS 


BY 

HELEN ELLSWORTH 


ILLUSTRATED 
WITH PHOTOGRAPHS 
BY THE AUTHOR 



NEW YORK 
THE CENTURY CO. 
1918 



Copyright, 1918, by 
The Century Co. 


Published, April, 1918 


MAY -3 1918. 


©CI.A495959 


✓'V'-'C i 


ADELE VIRGINIE 







■ 


































































































































































































































































. 


















































LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


The Blue Jays at Home . 

Tommy 

It Isn’t Easy Without a Saddle 
Getting Ready for the Start 
Looking Down on Gilmore Lake 
the Mountain Top . 

Juliet, Jack, Jane and Jan 
The Baby’s Morning Bath 
Wash Day in Camp . 

Through Faith Valley . 

At the Goodfellows’ Cabin 
Highland Lake 
The Deer Kill . 

A Camp Bed in the Open 
At Fallen Leaf 
Midsummer Snow . 

The Goodfellows’ Cabin 
A Bit of Mountain Road 
Dixon and a Pack Horse 


PAGE 

Frontispiece \/ 
17 
36 
45 v 


from Near 


56 V/ 
73 " 
92 
109 
115 
126 
132 
149 
149 
155 
166 
166 
188 



THE BLUE JAYS 
IN THE SIERRAS 









































































































































































































































































































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THE BLUE JAYS 
IN THE SIERRAS 


CHAPTER I 

J ULIET was sitting on the top step of 
the old ranch-house in the shadow of the 
walnut-tree, looking out over acres and acres 
of green bean-fields. About a quarter of a 
mile away were the ranch-barns and she 
could see the horses, harnessed and ready, 
standing near the long trough, and the men 
gathered around the big door, waiting for 
the one o’clock bell to ring that would start 
them off to work again. The heat was rising 
in waves from the green fields and the air 
was fairly simmering. 

She gave an impatient little sigh, lifted the 
heavy mop of hair at the back of her neck, 
and murmured to herself : “My, if we have 
3 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

much more of this, it will certainly cook the 
beans! And then where will our autumn 
crop be?” Hearing her mother’s step be- 
hind her, she called : 

“Mama, when are we going to the moun- 
tains?” 

Mrs. ver Planck, coming out on the wide, 
screened-in porch, her arms filled with 
an overflowing mending-basket, laughed. 
That question had been asked her often in 
the last few days since the hot wave had 
struck the ranch. 

“Just as soon as ever we can get there, 
my dear,” was her answer. “We ought to 
hear to-day from the Rangers. You know 
that as soon as the range is open, your father 
will leave with the horses.” 

“Then it will mean another week, anyway, 
before we can possibly get off,” said Juliet, 
rather crossly. “Why can’t Jane and I go 
with you, Mama, when you and Papa drive 
the stock up? Cousin Jack could go in the 
wagon, because he does n’t know how to ride 
yet. Then you could come back for the little 

4s 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

boys and Aunt Jennie, just as you planned. 
That would be lots of fun. Couldn’t we?” 

But “Mama” only laughed again. 

“You would n’t like it, little girl. It ’s 
ever so much hotter in the foot-hills than it is 
here, and it ’s riding all day long, whether 
you want to or not. Wait a bit. Maybe 
when you really know how to ride, Papa will 
take you.” Juliet heard the creak of the 
wicker chair as her mother settled herself 
comfortably, and then came a snap and the 
croon of the electric fan, which shut off all 
further conversation in that direction. 

The one o’clock bell rang, and Jane, fol- 
lowed by Jan and Just, and Cinders, the 
family fox-terrier, came running round the 
corner of the house. Juliet got up with a 
lazy stretch and from the top step looked at 
them reprovingly. 

“Gracious, you children,” said she, “ you 
mustn’t run like that on a hot day!” She 
was the eldest of the four and took her ten 
years seriously. 

Jane looked up with a merry glance. She 

5 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

was eight, and with her short, curly, brown 
hair and little blue denim knickerbockers, 
appeared more like a roguish boy than a 
little girl. 

“Cut your hair off, Juliet, and you won’t 
be so hot,” was her retort. 

Juliet’s dark, reddish brown hair was her 
great pride. Up to two years before her 
mother had insisted upon keeping it short. 
On her eighth birthday, when the excitement 
of the day was over and she thought that she 
had had all her presents and was ready to 
go to sleep, Mama came out on the sleeping- 
porch and whispered in her ear, “You may 
let your hair grow.” That had been the 
best present of all! Now it had reached a 
creditable length, quite long enough to need 
bows. And she had always wanted bows, 
just like other little girls. Both children 
were tall for their age, and both were dark 
skinned and tanned to the shade of Indians. 
Juliet was slender and as straight as an ar- 
row, while Jane was strong and sturdy look- 
ing. 

6 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

It was time for the afternoon lessons, and 
Juliet went for her practice hour, while Jane 
brought her reading book and little chair, 
placing the latterbeside her mother. 

The little boys, too small yet to be both- 
ered with lessons, went off hand in hand to 
the pool under the willow-tree, which a wa- 
terfall from an irrigation ditch kept always 
cool and fresh. Mama, from her chair on 
the porch, called to Jan, her little five-year- 
old: 

“Look out for the baby, son. Don’t let 
him get near the deep ditch.” 

“All right,” called back Jan, “I’ll be 
very careful, Mama.” 

Little Jan was a golden haired child of 
the north, as fair as his sisters were dark, 
with hair that gleamed like shining gold in 
the sun. It was his delight to join in all the 
sports of Juliet and Jane, and they always 
included him whenever possible, giving him 
a rabbit of his own to feed and look after 
when they took care of theirs, and taking 
him behind them on their horses when he 


7 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

became tired of his own little, jiggly, slip- 
pery pony, Tommy. While they were 
working at their lessons with Mama, it was 
his duty to keep an eye on Just, the baby, 
a husky little two-year-old, who often led 
him a merry chase. They spent most of 
their mornings together in the garden in a 
huge sand-pile under a spreading palm-tree. 
There was a coping of cement around it wide 
enough to sit on comfortably, built in the 
shape of an octagon, which kept the sand 
from encroaching on the green lawn. Here, 
barefoot, they dug their ditches and tunnels, 
and on hot days were allowed to keep them 
running full from a nearby hydrant. 

The ranch where these children lived was 
in the reclaimed lands of the Sacramento 
River Valley. Thirty years before, where 
the house now stood, there had been only 
swamp-land. Now all around was a flour- 
ishing ranch of wonderfully rich soil, where 
beans, asparagus, alfalfa and seed-crops — 
onions and carrots — were raised in huge 
8 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

quantities. High levees on all sides kept the 
river -waters out, and the former were care- 
fully watched and frequently strengthened. 
Not long before, when Juliet was a baby, the 
levee had broken and the river had swept in, 
carrying away houses and barns, drowning 
horses and cattle, and doing many thousands 
of dollars’ worth of damage. The children 
loved to hear their father and mother tell of 
the days spent in a boat, trying to save what 
they could, going always armed to protect 
their property from the looters who came in 
launches through the wide gap; of the ef- 
forts to pump the district dry, with part of 
the big pumps which were in use during 
every rainy season under water and all the 
boilers submerged, and finally of the rebuild- 
ing of the home. The main house had been 
left standing, held down by the heavy brick 
chimneys, but it was very much the worse for 
wear. The ground floor rooms were half 
filled with mud, with here and there a gray 
streak — the yellowed piano-keys — and the 
9 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

bones of animals which had come in through 
the broken windows in their effort to escape 
the water. 

Jane was in the middle of a struggle with 
the trials of fair Elsa and Lohengrin when 
their father came in with the afternoon mail. 

“Two letters for you, my dear,” said he to 
Mrs. ver Planck, “and good news from Plac- 
erville. Mr. Green, Forest Supervisor, 
says that we may go in on the twentieth. 
That means we ought to leave to-morrow, 
as it will take at least four days to get the 
stock up. Now if your sister were only here 
to look after our household, you and I could 
take the horses and the cow-boy could drive 
the team. Then you would have a chance to 
choose your own camping site, and Dixon 
could get things in shape before the children 
come.” 

“How about the cattle?” said Mrs. ver 
Planck. “Won’t it take longer to get them 
up there?” 

“They don’t go this year,” he answered. 
“There are so many tourists traveling over 
10 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

this range, visiting Mount Tallac and the 
little lakes nearby, who would be frightened 
at the sight of a range-cow in the distance, 
that they have barred them out. There will 
be just the colts and the riding stock. But 
see what J ennie says. One of your letters 
looks as if it came from her.” 

Mrs. ver Planck opened her mail. Then, 
with a happy smile, she read aloud: 

“ ‘You may expect us the fifteenth on the 
afternoon boat from San Francisco. Jack 
is crazy to reach the ranch and try his skill 
at riding with your little girls. We have 
seen enough of the San Diego Fair, lovely 
as it is, and I have been sorry ever since we 
left the East that we did not come directly to 
you. I hope that this extra delay will not 
interfere with your trip with Dirk.’ ” 

Mrs. ver Planck broke off and rose hur- 
riedly. 

“That means they will be here this after- 
noon. I must go and see about their rooms. 
Run, Jane. Tell Juliet there will be no 
more school to-day, and then hurry down to 
n 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


the barn and order the horses, for the boat 
has been getting in early and we must be sure 
and be there to meet them.” 

This visit of Mrs. Dumont, Mrs. ver 
Planck’s sister and the children’s much loved 
“Aunt Jennie,” had long been looked for- 
ward to by the whole family. The bond be- 
tween the two sisters was very close, though 
from living on opposite sides of the conti- 
nent they saw little of each other. She had 
been with them only two years before, when 
little Just was born, and so knew the ranch 
and children well. But this time her visit 
had an added zest, since she was bringing 
with her her only son, Jack, a boy of about 
Juliet’s age in years, but a good deal older in 
experience. His home was in New York 
City, and he had been at boarding school for 
the last two years. 

Jane, only too glad to be released, ran off 
to interrupt Juliet’s practice. The Czerny 
came to a stop with a bang, and presently 
two little blue figures could be seen on their 
way to the barn. 


12 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

“There they go without hats! Will they 
never learn?” said Mrs. ver Planck. 
“You ’d better call them back, Dirk. It ’s 
much too hot to be out that way.” 

“Oh, they ’ll be all right,” answered their 
father. “They don’t know the difference, 
with their thick, curly heads. Tell them to 
put their hats on when they come down with 
their horses, before you start for the landing. 
What are you driving?” 

“The little Arabians,” said Mrs. ver 
Planck. “But don’t worry; I’ll be very 
careful. I ’ll walk down to the barn and 
start them off myself. Since your new 
stableman let them run away the other day, 
I haven’t had much faith in his driving 
ability.” 

“Well, look out for them, and don’t get 
hurt,” was her husband’s warning. “I ’d 
take you down in the car, but I must be off to 
Sacramento. There are some things that 
should be attended to if we are to leave 
to-morrow. Have everything ready, and 
we ’ll pack the wagon in the morning. But 
13 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


how about your other letter, before I go?” 

“It ’s from your father,” said Mrs. ver 
Planck. “He will join us on the mountain 
trip we were talking about the other day. 
He writes that he will come up in his car as 
far as Myer’s, whenever we are ready to go, 
and we can meet him there.” 

“That ’s fine,” said her husband. “Then 
he can drive the wagon. Jennie and the 
baby can go with him, and the rest of us can 
ride.” 

“Don’t you think it will be too much for 
Jan on horseback?” asked Mrs. ver Planck. 

“Well, we will take his pony, anyway,” 
said his father, “and if he gets tired, he can 
always go in the wagon. He has been rid- 
ing a good deal lately, and I have n’t heard 
of any tumbles. We ’ll go slowly, — not 
more than twenty miles a day. That will be 
enough for the bareback riders.” 

They had come into the house while they 
were talking, and now separated. Mr. ver 
Planck hurried out to his car and was off to 
Sacramento City, about an hour’s run away, 
14 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

and his wife went into the house to give 
the necessary orders for the comfort of their 
expected guests. 

J uliet and J ane, walking down to the barn . 
together, were talking over the coming 
visitors. 

“My, I hope he ’ll like riding,” said Jane. 
“Papa says he is to ride Merry in the moun- 
tains, but I think he ’ll have to learn how 
before he can stick on him. He ’most 
lost me last week. Do you remember when 
he shied so badly while we were going so 
fast?” 

“Yes; and if you are n’t careful, Jolly will 
do the same thing,” said Juliet. “Dixon 
says she is n’t really broken yet. I wonder 
if it will take Jack long to learn. We ’ll 
teach him as fast as we can.” 

“Let ’s catch old Billy and lead him down 
to the landing. Then he can begin to ride 
right away,” suggested Jane. 

“Aunt Jennie won’t let him,” answered 
the more prudent Juliet. “He won’t have 
his ranch-clothes on. You know Mama 


15 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

won’t let us ride when we are ready to go to 
Sacramento.” 

“That ’s because we have skirts on,” said 
Jane. 

“When I ’m grown up,” went on Juliet, 
“I ’m going to wear skirts always !” 

“What! For riding, too?” exclaimed 
Jane. “Oh, I ’m not. I like these 
broekjes. You know Mama never wears 
skirts when she is riding, and she says she 
is n’t even going to take any with her this 
year.” 

“Well, maybe not for riding,” admitted 
Juliet, “but for everything else I ’ll have 
nice, long ones, with lots of lace and frills.” 

“Then you can’t be a Blue Jay any 
longer,” said Jane, “and we ’ll call you Miss 
Fluffy Ruffles.” 

“I ’ll have them blue, and my name will 
begin with a J just the same,” fenced Juliet. 
“But hurry up, Jane. Get the barley can, 
and I ’ll bring the bridles. We ’ll catch 
Tommy, too. Jan will want to ride with 


16 










































• , 






















































































































■ 



THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

The stableman was a busy person — teams 
had to be hitched and unhitched, horses fed 
and watered, sick horses doctored, and the 
barn kept clean — and so the children took 
care of their own ponies. It was a simple 
matter. They were turned out in a big field 
nearby, where there was plenty of grass and 
water, and a big haystack in the corner gave 
them the necessary dry feed. The only dif- 
ficulty came when they refused to be caught, 
which they did periodically. But, armed 
with barley, the children generally could per- 
suade them to stand still until they had them 
bridled. This afternoon Tommy, Jan’s lit- 
tle pony, was the only contrary one, and 
after following him around the pasture sev- 
eral times, they mounted their horses and 
drove him at a gallop into the little corral at 
the end of the field. Here it was an easy 
matter for Juliet to corner him, while Jane 
held the gate. He was an Iberian pony, 
dappled sorrel, with snow-white mane and 
tail, as large as a good-sized Shetland, but 
of more slender build. The little girls had 
19 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

learned to ride on him, and now he had been 
turned over to Jan. After they had mas- 
tered him it was not a hard matter to stay on 
the gentler broncos, for Tommy could shy 
with the best of them, going straight across 
the road in one jump. He could go right 
out from under his would-be rider, his back 
was so slippery. 

The children rode without saddles ; a 
blanket held by a surcingle was all they were 
allowed to use. On the left side of the sur- 
cingle was a loop which they used for mount- 
ing when there was no fence near. Once 
their father had seen them using this loop as 
a stirrup when riding and the penalty had 
been no horses for a week. It never hap- 
pened again. Riding in this way there was 
never any danger of their being dragged. 
Falls there had been in plenty, with tears 
and big, bad bumps, but so far nothing more 
serious. 

Juliet rode an Indian pony named Gay. 
He lived up to his name, was always dancing 
with his neck arched, and was ready to be off 
20 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

at a gallop at her slightest word. He had 
only one bad habit. When things did n’t go 
just his way, and Juliet was n’t watching, he 
would turn his head and give her a sharp, lit- 
tle nip on the ankle. 

Jane’s mare, Jolly, was larger than Gay 
and more of a bronco. She was still a colt, 
and had lately come from the hands of 
Dixon, the cow-boy, who had been breaking 
her. 

“Let ’s get Billy, too,” said Jane. “May- 
be Aunt Jennie will let Jack ride, and it ’s 
easy enough to lead him home again if she 
does n’t.” 

So Billy, an old, old cow-pony, was caught 
and bridled, and each leading an extra horse 
they started for the house to see if their 
mother was ready to join them. A distant 
whistle from the river made them put their 
horses at a gallop. 

“The boat ’s whistled for the Grove, 
Mama. We ’ll have to hurry to beat it to 
our landing,” said Juliet. “May we go on 
ahead, so as to be sure and be there?” 

21 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


Mrs. ver Planck was coming out of the 
house, the children’s hats in her hand. 

“All right,” she said, “but put these on 
first. Next time don’t forget them. If the 
boat lands before I get there, tell Aunt Jen- 
nie that her letter reached us only this after- 
noon. She will understand my being late.” 

Jan had joined them, and Juliet dis- 
mounted to help him on Tommy. Then the 
three started off, Jane a little behind to keep 
Billy up to the pace, and Cinders in the 
lead, giving vent to his delight in short, quick 
barks. 

Mrs. ver Planck smiled at the extra horse, 
but did not say anything. Taking little 
Just by the hand, she walked quickly down 
to the barn where her team was waiting. 

The river-landing was about four miles 
away, a short four miles on horseback, for 
the district was entirely flat. “How much 
it looks like Holland!” people often said, and 
indeed, with the deep ditches along the 
straight roads, the lines of poplar trees used 
as windbreaks, and the levees in the distance, 
22 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

it might well have been a bit of the Nether- 
lands. It needed only the huge, wooden 
windmills to complete the picture. Instead, 
a modern, steel windmill stood out from each 
little group of tenants’ buildings. Hills 
were unknown to these children until they 
left the ranch, and on Juliet’s first trip down 
the river as a baby, she had exclaimed in 
wonder at the foothills, asking her father 
why these levees were so much bigger than 
those at home. 

The boat was just pulling in when the 
children reached the landing. Leaping 
from their ponies they were in time to give 
their aunt and cousin a tumultuous welcome 
as they stepped off the gang-plank. 

“Well, how are all the Blue Jays?” was 
Aunt Jennie’s greeting. “See, I ’ve brought 
you another one!” 

“Sure enough,” said Juliet, “ ‘Jack’ be- 
gins with a J, too. We never thought of 
that. You ’ll have to dress him like the rest 
of us, Aunt Jennie, and then he ’ll be a real 
one. My, but we are glad to see you; and 
23 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

Mama will be, too. She will be here in 
just a minute. And please, Aunt Jennie, 
can’t Jack begin to learn to ride right away, 
that is, if he would like to?” — with a shy 
look in the latter’s direction. “We brought 
down Billy. You remember old Billy. He 
can’t get hurt on him, and we will go so 
slowly.” 

“Please, Aunt Jennie,” chorused Jane 
and Jan. “Oh, please!” 

Their aunt, carried away by their en- 
treaties and the longing in her own boy’s 
eyes, gave a reluctant consent. 

“But remember,” she cautioned, “no 
broken bones. I came out here to go camp- 
ing in the mountains, not to stay on the 
ranch and nurse an invalid.” 

“We ’ll be very careful,” promised the lit- 
tle girls. “Come along, Jack. Here comes 
Mama, so let ’s be off.” 

They saw their aunt into the buggy which 
had just come up, and helped George, the 
wharfinger, collect the suitcases and bags. 
Then Juliet led Billy up alongside the 
24 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

wharf, where it was an easy step to his back. 

Jack was a well-grown boy for his age, 
strong and full of restless energy. The de- 
sire of his life — like so many other boys — 
had always been to have a horse of his own. 

So far he had never ridden, his summer va- - 
cations having been spent at the seashore. 
There he had learned to swim, and was the 
proud possessor of a little row-boat. When 
he was just a little chap his father and 
mother had promised him a horse “some- 
time.” Indeed, in a way he had earned it, 
for once, when he was only four years old, 
his father and he had been standing on the 
bank of a reservoir. As it was early in the 
spring the water was very cold and his father 
had said to him, more to tease him than any- 
thing else, “Jack, if you ’ll jump in, I ’ll give 
you a pony.” Without any hesitation the 
child had taken the icy plunge, and his father 
— it served him right, the family had said — 
had to follow suit to get him out again. He 
would have had his pony then, but they had 
moved unexpectedly to New York and the 
25 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

prize had to be postponed. Now was his 
chance to learn to ride, and for days he had 
been looking forward to the moment when 
he should be on a horse. 

He swung himself on, took the reins from 
Juliet, and waited while she jumped on Gay 
who was restlessly pawing the sand. 

“You and Jan go ahead,” said she to Jane. 
“Maybe Jack would like to walk a bit first.” 

“We ’ll all walk,” said Jane, not willing to 
miss any of the excitement. 

So, four abreast, they started down the 
wide level road. 

“How does it feel. Jack?” asked Jane. 
“All right?” 

It was very far from all right, but Jack 
wouldn’t have admitted it for the world. 
The horse seemed so much higher than he 
had expected ; there was n’t anything to 
hang on to, and the oiled sand looked hard 
and uninviting. 

“Oh, fine and dandy,” he answered, “but 
don’t you ever use saddles out here?” 

“Papa says he is n’t going to have any of 
26 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


his children ‘pulling leather,’ ” said Juliet, 
“and when we get so that we never want to 
hang on to anything any more, he ’ll give us 
saddles.” 

Jack wondered what “pulling leather” 
meant, but did n’t like to ask. Jane, looking 
up, saw the puzzled look and exclaimed. 

“That ’s what they call it when cow-boys 
hang on in a bronco-busting show. If any 
one sees them, they are n’t allowed to ride 
any more, and their staying on doesn’t 
count. You see, sometimes when we are go- 
ing pretty fast and something unexpected 
might happen, we often hang on to the mane. 
We should n’t, of course, but it ’s all right 
when you ’re learning. Hold on to Billy’s 
now, and we ’ll trot some. Come on. Juliet, 
or we ’ll be late for supper.” 

“You say so, if you don’t like it,” said 
Juliet. “Get up there, Billy!” and she gave 
the old horse an encouraging slap on his back 
with the end of her bridle-rein. 

Billy broke into a trot and Jack gave a 
gasp. He didn’t like it a bit. It was 
27 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

bump -bump -bump, now on one side, now on 
the other, but he ’d have died rather than 
have told these girl cousins, who rode so 
easily, that he ’d much rather walk. He 
glanced across at Jan who was riding beside 
Juliet and was relieved to see that he was 
hanging on to Tommy’s mane with a tight 
hold. But then, Jan was only five. 

“That ’s it,” encouraged Juliet. “Just sit 
loosely; you ’ll soon learn. Now, we ’ll gal- 
lop ; that ’s lots easier. Get up there, Billy !” 
and there came another slap across Billy’s 
back, just behind Jack. Billy immediately 
broke into a gallop. Oh, now he never could 
stay on! He certainly would fall off under 
those other horses’ feet, and for a minute 
Jack almost hated Juliet and Jane. 

“Squeeze your knees tight!” yelled Jane. 
“That ’s the way; that ’s fine.” 

The first fear over, Jack found that it was 
really easier than trotting. A haze seemed 
to clear away from his eyes and he felt much 
better. But presently something inside him 
began to hurt and he wished more than ever 
28 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

that those girls would stop. Juliet was 
watching his face — she had not forgotten her 
promise to her aunt — and now she called 
out: 

“That ’s enough, Jane. Slow up. We 
have lots of time and it ’s not so late ; besides, 
it ’s hot. You remember what Papa said 
about bringing our horses in all sweaty. 
We came over pretty fast and Gay ’s puffing 
yet/’ 

Walking was so much pleasanter than gal- 
loping or trotting that Jack felt almost com- 
fortable again, and he had time to look 
around with interest at the ranch about which 
he had heard so much. They had left the 
levee and were going along a road with a 
deep, wide ditch on one side and on the other 
a double row of corn. 

“Funny way to grow corn,” he remarked. 
“What ’s the idea? Just looks?” 

“It ’s for the dust,” explained Juliet. 
“All that green beyond is beans. The dust 
from the road hurts them and the corn helps 
to keep it off. A watering cart would be 
29 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


better and we ’re going to have one soon.” 

‘‘Beans!” exclaimed Jack; “where are the 
poles?” 

“Oh, they ’re not the pole kind,” said Ju- 
liet. “They just branch out, and stacks and 
stacks of beans grow on them, — the Boston 
baked kind, you know. Why, they grow 
lots of different kinds here, — white, and 
pink, and big, brown ones.” 

“Is Billy going to the mountains?” asked 
Jack, looking down at him admiringly. His 
horse was of much more interest to him than 
farm crops. “And can I ride him there?” 

“Oh, no!” exclaimed Jane; “Billy ’s much 
too old. You are going to ride Merry up 
there. I ’ve ridden him for a whole year and 
he ’s very nice, indeed. He ’s dappled gray 
and can go as fast as Gay, but Papa thought 
that I ’d better ride Jolly this summer, be- 
cause she has such a light mouth and is n’t 
good for a beginner. She ’s nice, too,” — 
and Jane leaned forward to pat the pony’s 
neck, — “but she ’s a colt yet, and I can’t al- 
so 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

ways make her do just what I want. Dixon 
says I ought to have spurs, but of course I 
can’t use spurs riding bareback.” 

“Here comes Mama!” called Jan. 
“We ’d better get out of the way.” 

“Pull way over toward the corn, Jack, 
right behind Jane. That’s right,” said 
Juliet, and together they shouted and hal- 
looed as the buggy went by, leaving a cloud 
of dust behind it. 

“I hope I ’ll have time to learn before we 
go. When will that be?” said Jack, as they 
came back on the road again. 

“Mama and Papa go to-morrow, and 
they ’ll take all our horses with them, but 
Billy will stay behind, and we ’ll ask the fore- 
man to let us have one other old horse so that 
one of us can ride with you. It will be a 
week, anyway, before we all go, and that will 
be plenty of time.” 

“Are we going to ride much up there?” 
said Jack. “My, it will be fun to camp! I 
never have, you know.” 

si 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

“Oh, yes,” said Juliet. “You see it ’s a 
three-mile ride from where we have to leave 
the automobile, — right up a steep mountain, 
Papa says, — and then, after we ’ve been 
there a week or so, we ’re going to take a 
horseback trip right across the mountains to 
where we camped last year. It will take 
about three days to get there, and that will 
be lots of fun.” 

“Yes, and Mama says,” broke in Jane, 
“that if we ’re good Indians and don’t fuss 
about sleeping on rocks and washing dishes, 
we can go with them to the Y r osemite next 
year. That’s a wonderful place! So Ju- 
liet and I got some hard things, — not rocks, 
you know, ’cause there are n’t any here, but 
pieces of concrete and gravel from our road, 
— and we ’ve got them in our beds now. 
We ’ve slept on them two nights and it ’s 
really not bad.” 

J ack looked at his cousin quickly to make 
sure she was n’t trying to fool him, but her 
face was perfectly serious. 

“Come on now,” cried Jan; “let’s trot 
32 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


some more. I want to get home. Hurry 
up, Juliet.” 

“All right,” said she. “Come on, Jack.” 

They were passing in front of a group of 
tenants’ buildings, — several houses on one 
side of the road and a big barn with a corral 
was on the other, — when suddenly a flock of 
turkeys, disturbed by Cinders, came flying 
out from behind a heap of straw. They 
went across the road just in front of the 
horses’ hoofs. Jolly and Gay side-stepped, 
and Billy came to a sudden stop. Not so 
Jack. He went right on, and landed in a 
little heap in front of Billy’s nose. 

“It ’s all right,” he called, getting up in a 
hurry. “I ’m not hurt a bit,” but he looked 
down ruefully at his dusty clothes. 

Juliet was off Gay in a minute. She gave 
her rein to Jane to hold, and came running 
up to help him. 

“My, I ’m sorry that happened,” she said. 
“Are you sure you aren’t hurt? Here, let 
me dust' you off,” and she gave Jack a few 
lusty whacks. 

S3 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

“Oh, have a heart; look out for the spot 
where I hit,” said Jack, edging off. “I ’m 
all right; but I ’m glad mother passed be- 
fore this happened, and that she did n’t see 
it. Now how do you suppose I ’ll ever get 
on again?” 

“Easy enough,” said Juliet. “Give me 
your left foot and throw the other over. 
Billy will stand. Ready?” She stood braced 
against Bill’s shoulder, her hands on her hip, 
ready for Jack’s weight. 

He was up in a minute, much more easily 
than he had expected, and to his surprise 
found that he had lost all fear of falling off 
again. He mentioned this to his cousins, 
and Juliet explained that it often worked 
that way. 

“It ’s ’cause you found it did n’t hurt 
much, after all,” she said. “I ’ve been off 
lots of times, and so has Jane and Jan. 
Now let ’s walk the rest of the way, and you 
tell us about the Fair. We went to the big 
fair last autumn and saw lots of interesting 
things. Do you remember the merry-go- 
34 

































































































































IT ISN T EASY WITHOUT A SADDLE 







THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

round, Jane? And the music? What fun 
that was! And that great, shining tower! 
Jan did n’t like it much, did you, Jan? He 
said it was just like a great big store, and he 
wanted to go home most of the time.” 

“Yes, but those boats were fun,” piped 
Jan. “They went around in the dark and 
you saw pretty pictures. I liked the horse, 
too, that could do arithmetic better than you 
can, Jane.” 

Jack was anxious to tell them about the 
wonders of the Fair he had just come from, 
and so, chatting together, they soon reached 
the big ranch-barn. When they had turned 
their horses in the pasture, after hanging up 
the bridles and blankets, they felt as if they 
had known each other for years. 

Mama and Aunt Jennie were sitting in the 
sand-pile, still talking as if they would never 
stop, when the children came walking 
through the gate. 

“There, look at his clothes!” said Jack’s 
mother. “I knew he ’d take a tumble.” 

“Well, he does n’t seem to have hurt him- 
37 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

self,” said Mrs. ver Planck. “They all look 
happy. How was it?” she called. “Are 
you going to like riding?” 

“It ’s lots of fun, Aunt Elizabeth,” an- 
swered Jack, “and I think I almost know 
how. I only fell off once!” 

“Good for you, Jack,” answered Mrs. ver 
Planck; “that ’s the right spirit. Now run 
along, kiddies. Take Just with you, and 
get ready for supper.” 


38 


CHAPTER II 


T HE next morning all was bustle in the 
ranch-house. A big, canvas-covered 
wagon stood outside, and Mr. and Mrs. ver 
Planck, with the help of the ranch foreman 
were busily packing it with camp supplies. 

‘‘Goodness, Elizabeth, do you think we ’ll 
ever eat all that up?” was Mrs. Dumont’s 
comment, as she sat in the shade of the sand- 
pile palm, watching case after case disappear 
into the wagon. 

“Oh, it does n’t take long,” answered her 
sister. “There ’ll be two men in camp this 
year, and the children must have plenty of 
the right kind of things to eat ; otherwise, it 
won’t do them much good, and they might 
better stay at home. You know six weeks, 
with no source of supply, is a long time. Of 
course, where we are going this year, we 
could get things from the hotels near Tahoe, 
39 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

but everything costs much more up there, and 
we are accustomed to doing it this way. 
Last year the nearest post-office was forty 
miles away.” 

“However do you remember everything?” 
asked Mrs. Dumont. 

“Oh, I have lists, and every year I revise 
them a bit. Of course we hope there will be 
plenty of fish, and maybe a deer or two, with 
grouse when the season opens, but I ’ve 
learned not to count on it. We ’re taking a 
couple of kids, so we ’re sure of some fresh 
meat, anyway.” 

“Where do the kids ride?” asked her sister. 

“In the auto, along with the goats and the 
family,” and she laughed at the expression 
on her sister’s face. 

“Goats?” said Mrs. Dumont. “Why 
goats?” 

“Fresh milk for the children,” answered 
Mrs. ver Planck. “We always take two at 
least. Dirk crates them in on the running- 
board, and on top of them go the blankets, 
butter, fruit, suit-cases, and all the other 
40 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

things we can’t take on this trip with the 
wagon. Wait until next week when he 
packs it ; you ’ll need a derrick to help you 
in,” and Mrs. ver Planck turned back to her 
task of checking off the boxes and sacks. 
“Five sacks of flour; two sacks of sugar,” she 
read off. “I wonder whether that will be 
enough. Our cow-boy is going to hate the 
whole-wheat flour, but he ’ll have to get used 
to it, for I won’t have the children eating 
that white stuff.” 

“Oh, you crank!” said Mrs. Dumont. 
“Are we to eat brown flour and natural rice 
all summer?” 

“We are; but cheer up, there will be lots 
of other things.” 

“Who does the cooking?” asked Mrs. Du- 
mont. 

“We, Us and Co.,” was the cheerful an- 
swer. “The children are the Co. No help 
this year. Last year I had to take one of 
the maids, for Just was such a baby, but it 
never works well. Camp life does n’t ap- 
peal to them, and besides, it ’s better for the 
41 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

children to learn to depend on themselves. 
Camp cooking isn’t hard; there is so much 
canned stuff, and we have the ‘fireless.’ I 
always take that when the children are along, 
and you ’ve no idea how much easier it makes 
things.” 

“Elizabeth ver Planck!” exclaimed her sis- 
ter. “How are you going to get a fireless 
cooker up that mountain. Dirk has told me 
it ’s a hard, steep, rocky trail and that every- 
thing will have to go on horseback.” 

“That ’s Dirk’s lookout,” said the other. 
“He has done lots harder things than that, 
and he always gets there somehow. But 
look, Jennie! Your son is almost a rider.” 

They glanced out to the road and saw the 
little girls and Jack trotting merrily along. 
Jack was in the middle, bumping from side 
to side, but hanging on and looking as if he 
liked it. They walked out to the gate and 
the children drew up in front of them, Jack 
apparently as proud as a peacock. 

“Don’t forget to take your horses to the 
42 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


shop to have their shoes off, children,” re- 
minded their mother. “If they are to run 
with the colts, they might do some damage. 
But leave Tommy’s on. He ’s so small that 
he will need his for protection against the 
others. Now, Jack, let’s see how you can 
gallop. Look out for a stumble; Billy is 
old, you know.” With a shout the three 
were off together down the road, Jack’s heels 
going like mad against Billy’s sides in his 
efforts to keep him up with the others. 

The sisters turned back to the wagon in 
answer to a call from Mr. ver Planck for 
more groceries. 

“I hate to leave you, Jennie, now that you 
have only just arrived,” said Mrs. ver 
Planck, “but we won’t be long, and I ’m sure 
you won’t have any trouble with the house 
or children. Call on the foreman if you 
want anything, and don’t hesitate to ring up 
our doctor in case of need.” 

“Don’t worry about me,” said Mrs. Du- 
mont. “I have ever so many letters to write 
4 3 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


before I can camp with a clear conscience, 
and I ’ll have them done before you ’re home 
again.” 

That afternoon, when all was in readiness, 
the children and Aunt Jennie walked down 
to the barn to watch the start. Mrs. ver 
Planck, dressed in dark gray corduroys, 
mounted on her pretty, bay saddle-pony, 
Mopsa, was waiting near the big gate, while 
her husband, aided by several ranch-hands, 
was culling out a big, three-year-old from 
the bunch of colts racing around in the cor- 
ral. 

At last they had him cornered, the gate 
swung open, and eighty head of colts, the 
children’s ponies, and eight or nine extra 
saddle-horses, all wild with excitement and 
ready to be off at a gallop, came pushing and 
crowding out. 

“Block the road, children, so they can’t 
take the wrong turn; and you take the lead, 
Elizabeth!” called Mr. ver Planck. “Don’t 
hold them back much, or they will scatter 
among the beans.” 


44 


GETTING READY FOR THE START 
Packing in the goats 





THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


Down the road they went, Mopsa dancing 
ahead, bells ringing, dust flying, with waving 
handkerchiefs and shouts of good-by from 
the little group near the barn. 

Then Dixon pulled out, his heavy load 
drawn by four big ranch-horses who would 
make easy work of the steep mountain hills, 
and soon a cloud of dust in the distance was 
all that could be seen of them. 

“Well, they ’re off,” said Juliet. “Who 
knows but some day we ’ll be doing that, too. 
Jack, wouldn’t you come West for a ride 
like that? But come on, now! I guess 
you ’ve ridden enough to-day. We ’ll put 
our old donkey in the cart and go over to 
the big dairy. There ’s lots to see over 
there.” 

For the next week Jack had his riding les- 
son every morning. There was no school, as 
Mama was away, and it was all one glorious 
holiday. It was hot, but the children did n’t 
mind that much, for in the heat of the day 
they played in a big room in the basement of 
the house, a sort of combination play-room 
47 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

and school-room which was always cool. 
Here they had plenty of toys and books, 
more than enough for a week’s entertain- 
ment. Before they had realized that so 
much time had elapsed, Mr. and Mrs. ver 
Planck were home again. They came back 
on an evening boat, after the children were 
asleep, and so it was at breakfast next morn- 
ing that the trip was discussed and anxious 
questions answered. 

“Did you get there all right?” “Did you 
find a fine place to camp?” “How are our 
horses?” asked the children, faster than their 
mother and father could answer them. 

“All of those things, and many more be- 
sides,” said their mother. “We found a 
lovely spot up near the top of Mount Tallac, 
on the edge of a little lake, where Dixon is 
making camp. It ’s not as cold as Highland 
Lakes where we were last summer, and I 
think you can swim in it. There are two 
boats, built there by the hotel people below, 
and they gave us permission to use them 
whenever their fishing parties didn’t need 

48 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

them. J ack can teach you how to row. 
And to-morrow morning we ’ll be off.” 

“Breakfast at four o’clock, — everybody,” 
said Mr. ver Planck. “Suit-cases must be 
ready to-night. We ’ve got to make an 
early start if we don’t want to roast in the 
valley, because I ’ll have to take the top off 
the automobile to make room for the rest of 
the outfit.” 

“Not much use going to bed,” said Jack. 
“Why don’t we stay up?” 

“You will go to bed extra early to-night,” 
answered his mother. “You ’ll be tired 
enough by the time you get there.” 

“Is there plenty of snow left?” asked 
Juliet. 

“Lots of it,” said her father, “but it ’s 
melting fast. However, there is one bank 
not far away which they say never melts, and 
you can take a pack-horse and get snow there 
if you want to.” 

“Goody !” cried Jane. “Then we can take 
the jce-cream freezer. Did you put in 
plenty of lemons, Mama?” 

49 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

“Dozens,” said her mother, “and the 
freezer, too. They all went in the wagon. 
Now get your camp-clothes together this 
morning, and be sure that all the buttons are 
on. I want to get the bags packed early, 
before your father is ready for them.” 

The next morning, long before the sun was 
up, the family was ready for the start. The 
goats had been milked and persuaded to en- 
ter their crates, much against their will, and 
four horned heads stuck out from under the 
pile of blankets and boxes that were piled 
high on each side. Over the hood two sad- 
dles were strapped, with extra halters tied to 
them, and in the dim light the machine 
looked like a dreadful, many-headed dragon. 

“Do you think you ’ll ever make it with 
this awful load?” asked Aunt Jennie, as Mr. 
ver Planck helped her over the side. 

“Of course we will,” he answered. “The 
car will go as far as there is a road to run on. 
After that we ’ll have to ride. I told Dixon 
to meet us at the beginning of the trail at 
50 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

two o’clock this afternoon. We ought to 
make it easily by that time.” 

The lunch-box, filled with care the night 
before, was the only extra in the tonneau, so 
the children and Aunt Jennie found they had 
plenty of room. They settled themselves 
comfortably for the long ride, well wrapped 
in coats and blankets, for the early morning 
air was cold and nippy. 

They sped quietly through the level valley- 
roads, and the sun was up and glowing when 
they reached the foot-hills. 

“We take the Placerville road that Mark 
Twain made famous,” said Mrs. ver Planck 
over her shoulder to her sister. She was sit- 
ting in front, with little Just, curled up in 
her lap, fast asleep. “It ’s a beautiful road, 
every bit of it, and the State keeps it in good 
repair. You will love it. I never appreci- 
ated it fully until I rode over it last week. 
One sees so much more that way.” 

“This suits me,” said her sister. “I ’m be- 
ginning to see what Dirk meant when he 
51 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

spoke of the foot-hill heat. Take your coats 
off, children.” 

“Why, this isn’t bad,” said her brother- 
in-law. “Ride through here about twelve 
o’clock and see how you like it. We ’ll be 
away up in the mountains before it gets hot 
to-day.” 

They dipped down into Placerville, and 
then up, up, they went, over hills that with 
horses had seemed endless, but which the ma- 
chine conquered in short order. The road 
had been watered, and they were early 
enough to be ahead of most cars, so travel- 
ing was pleasant. They wound upward; 
then down, down, down — through wonder- 
ful pine-woods and across rushing streams 
that made you long to get out and try your 
skill at fishing. 

“You ’ll have plenty of time for that, 
Jack,” said his uncle, when the boy suggested 
it. “Just now the business on hand is to 
get there.” 

“Isn’t it time for lunch, Mama?” cried 
Jan. “I ’m so hungry!” 

52 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


“We ’ll have lunch at Strawberry; there ’s 
fine water there,” said his father. “Just an 
hour more, Jan. You can wait that long. 
How about some of your conundrums, 
Jack?” 

J ack started in and had them all guessing 
in no time. The oldest school joke was fresh 
to the ranch children, and lunch was for- 
gotten. 

Even the grown-ups, however, were glad 
enough when they reached the lunch place. 
Half-way up a rocky hill, by the side of a 
roaring, tumbling mountain-brook, Mr. ver 
Planck stopped the car and they all jumped 
out. 

“Can’t the goats get out, too, Papa?” said 
Jane. “They look so tired.” 

“No,” said her father, “it won’t be long 
now before we get there. They are too hard 
to get in again. Give them some water, 
Jane, and a little grass.” But the goats 
only hung their heads in disgust, and re- 
fused all the children’s offerings. 


53 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


“Does n’t it hurt their milk,” asked Aunt 
Jennie, “to take them on such a trip?” 

“Oh, for a few days they don’t give as 
much as usual, but they always pick up 
again,” said her sister, “and they will soon 
give twice as much as they did at home. It 
is their natural habitat, you know.” 

“They go up to the very highest peak,” 
said Juliet in an injured voice, “and we have 
to go after them. Don’t we, Jane?” 

Half-past twelve o’clock found them at 
the summit. There they could look down 
into Tahoe Valley and see that beautiful, 
deep-blue lake in the distance, with the Ne- 
vada hills gleaming on the farther side. 

Slowly they made the steep descent, and 
then sped through the valley and up again, 
with Tahoe behind them, past Fallen Leaf, 
that lovely lake so well-named, lying in the 
shadow of Mount Tallac, and then up the 
last, steep climb to the little Alpine hotel, 
perched fiigh, with rocks towering on every 
side. 

“There are the horses!” called Jane. 


54 , 



















































. 




































































































THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


“I see Dixon!” yelled Jan. “Oh, I ’m so 
glad we ’re here. Do hurry, Papa.” 

They were out at last, and all the children 
ran over as fast as they could to where Dixon 
was standing with a welcoming smile. 

“Well, I see you got here,” said he. 
“Pretty near on time, too.” He dropped 
the reins over his horse’s head and came over 
to where their ponies were standing tied to 
the trees. 

“Now, Miss Jane,” said he, helping her 
untie Jolly, “you ’ll have to be awful care- 
ful. Your father wanted I should put a 
curb bit on this mare, so you could stop her 
quick, but she ain’t used to it, and if you 
jerk her, she ’ll sure rear up with you.” 

“All right, I ’ll be very careful, Dixon,” 
promised Jane, as she jumped on. “My, 
is n’t it fine to be on her again!” 

“Wait a minute, children,” called their 
father from the machine, where he was busy 
untying the load. “I want you all to walk 
for the first quarter of a mile. That part of 
the trail is very rocky and steep, and neither 
57 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


you nor your horses are used to it. You and 
Jane will have to take the goats, Juliet; your 
mother will have Just, and I ’ll be busy with 
the pack-animals.” 

“Why don’t you put Just in a pack-sad- 
dle, Papa?” called Jan; “the way you did 
last year? That ’s the way we went into 
camp,” he went on, turning to Jack. 
“Tommy was n’t there, and Just went in one 
bag and I in the other, By the time he got 
there, he was fast asleep ! My legs were nice 
and stiff, too.” 

“This trail is too narrow,” returned her 
father, “and besides, we need all our packs, 
and more, too. We ’ll take what we can to- 
night, and Dixon and I will come back for 
another load in the morning. You can man- 
age the baby on Mopsa, can’t you, Eliza- 
beth?” 

“Oh, yes,” his wife answered, “we ’ll get 
along nicely, provided we don’t meet a tour- 
ist brandishing a fish-pole, as I did when I 
was leading the colts up. Give me a pillow 
58 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

from that pile of blankets and I will make a 
good seat for him in front of me.” 

“Will you ride the black, Jennie? She ’s 
gentler than she looks,” said Mr. ver 
Planck.” 

“I ’d a great deal rather walk,” said Mrs. 
Dumont. “You know it ’s years since 
I Ve ridden. Why not let me lead the 
goats?” 

“All right,” said her brother-in-law, “if 
you ’re sure you ’d rather. Just keep Mona 
Lisa ahead of you. Belle and the kids will 
follow her anywhere. Now you had better 
be off. There will be a lot to do in camp, 
and Dixon and I will come as soon as the 
horses are packed. But where are those 
goats?” He looked at the spot where the 
goats had been standing a minute before. 
Thankful to be free of the auto, they had 
turned down the road and were heading for 
home at a rapid pace. Dixon was too quick 
for them, however. He jumped on his 
horse, galloped around a little cut-off, neatly 
59 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

tripped up their leader, Mona Lisa, with his 
ever ready lasso, and brought back that much 
astonished goat in triumph, the others 
meekly following. He handed her over to 
Mrs. Dumont with the caution, “You ’d bet- 
ter keep tight hold of that there old lady, 
ma’am, or there sure will be a mixup.’” 

The procession started, Mama on Mopsa, 
carrying Just in front, in the lead, then 
Tommy’s little white head, with Jan leading 
him, and after him the other children, each 
leading their own horse. Aunt Jennie 
brought up the rear with her family of goats. 

“You can let them ride after you pass 
the gate, Elizabeth,” called her husband. 
“If you get into any trouble, wait for us. 
We ’ll be right along.” And he and Dixon, 
seeing them well on their way, went back to 
their work of unloading the car. 

It was a steep narrow trail, and the chil- 
dren, scrambling up the slippery rocks, were 
soon puffing and asking if they couldn’t 
ride. 

“Go slowly, children,” cautioned their 
60 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

mother. “You know we are so high that the 
air is very different from that at home, and 
you will get out of breath much more easily. 
You can ride soon. See; the gate is just 
around that corner. Your father and Dixon 
put up a fence there last week to keep the 
colts from getting out.” 

Juliet went ahead to open the gate for her 
mother, and they all filed through, glad 
enough to climb on their horses. 

Up and up they went, stopping now and 
then to let the horses puff. Aunt Jennie, 
in the rear, got farther and farther behind, 
and when they finally reached a level spot 
Mrs. ver Planck and the children stopped 
and waited for her to overtake them. 

“Tired, Jennie?” she called. “Sit down 
and rest, and when I get up with Just, I ’ll 
send back one of the children with Mopsa.” 

“It ’s my knees,” cried her sister, “and 
these awful goats ! But I ’ll get there some- 
how. You go ahead.” 

They started up another steep pitch, a 
high bank on one side and a deep gully on 
61 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

the other, when suddenly Belle, the mother 
of the two kids, who up to* that time had 
been contentedly trailing behind Aunt J en- 
nie, took it into her head to lead the proces- 
sion. She pushed by Mona Lisa, held in 
check by Aunt Jennie, and went on, crowd- 
ing her way past the children’s horses. 
Merry and Gay snorted and let her by, but 
it was too much for Jolly. She tried to get 
out of the trail and climb the steep bank at 
the side. Jane, forgetting the new curb, 
jerked her back. Up on her back legs went 
Jolly, higher and higher! There was a 
scream from Jane and then they crashed 
down the bank together, rolling all the way 
to the bottom. Fortunately for her, Jane 
slipped back as Jolly went over and so fol- 
lowed her down the hill, instead of being 
caught under her as she fell. Mrs. ver 
Planck, who was ahead, heard the crash and 
the scream. Turning Mopsa, she came hur- 
rying back, with a prayer in her heart for the 
safety of her little girl. Juliet and Jack 
both sprang off and dashed down to where 
62 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

Jane was lying in a little moaning heap. 
Jolly, just ahead, got up, shook herself, and 
scrambled back to the trail, where she stood 
trembling and shaking. 

“Oh, my dear baby!” called Mrs. ver 
Planck. “Are you dreadfully hurt? Help 
her up, Juliet, and see if anything ’s broken. 
I can’t get off, with Just here.” 

“Oh, my bones! my bones!” sobbed Jane; 
“they ’re all broken!” But she got up with 
the assistance of the older children, and they 
climbed back to the trail together. Her 
mother leaned down from her saddle and 
wiped away the tears. “There, there, dear,” 
said she, “thank Heaven, you’re all right! 
But however did it happen?” 

“Oh, Jolly got scared and I jerked her. 
Dixon told me I must n’t, and I never will 
again. But, O Mama, I do ache so!” 
“Where?” asked her mother. 
“Everywhere,” sobbed J ane. “All over !” 
“Never mind, dear,” cheered Mrs. ver 
Planck. “It ’s a lucky thing you did n’t get 
badly hurt. Mother will rub you to-night, 
63 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

and you ’ll be all well in the morning. Now 
climb up and we ’ll hurry on. I see Papa 
and Dixon away below, and we want to beat 
them to camp. Jolly looks as if she were 
sorry, too. Hush, Just! Jane’s all right 
now,” for the baby’s frightened cries had 
added to the clamor. 

So on they went, winding around the 
mountain, getting glimpses of lonely lakes 
and wonderful hills beyond, until they came 
out just under the peak of the highest moun- 
tain of all and rode along the little lake by 
which the camp was pitched. 

“I see the tent!” cried Jane, who, since her 
fall, had ridden behind her mother. “Is that 
the place, Mama? Oh, there’s Cinders! 
This surely is our camp!” 

“That ’s it, children. And are n’t we 
glad? I know two very tired little boys.” 
She had been glancing back anxiously at 
little Jan, who showed every sign of going 
to sleep on his pony, and she was more than 
thankful that they had arrived safely. 

“Tie your horses to that big log on the 

64 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


hill. See, there in that little corral Dixon 
has made. Then come and we will see if we 
can’t have supper ready before the others 
get here. They will be tired, too.” 

That evening, after the blankets had been 
spread and the children tucked safely away, 
Juliet and Jane called a “good-night” from 
their clump of trees to where Jack was lying 
in his little clump. 

“Good-night, girls,” called back Jack, 
“and say, Jane, I hope the bones will all be 
well in the morning.” 

“Don’t you worry about my bones,” re- 
torted Jane. “You get on Jolly and see 
what would happen to you.” 

“Oh, Merry suits me,” said Jack. “He ’s 
a fine horse, and we ’ll have lots of fun to- 
gether. Do you suppose we ’ll ride again 
soon?” 

“Not to-morrow, anyway,” said Juliet. 
“I heard Papa tell Dixon to turn our horses 
out. But there will be the boats, you know. 
I saw them on the other side of the lake. 

“Keep still, children!” called Mama from 

65 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


her place by the camp-fire. “You can chat 
all you want to-morrow. Now it ’s go-to- 
sleep time.” The children obediently snug- 
gled down in their warm blankets and, lulled 
by the wind in the tree-tops, were soon 
asleep. 


66 


CHAPTER III 


T HE sun shining in their eyes awakened 
the children early the next morning, 
but they did n’t hurry to get up. There was 
still a little tired feeling left over from the 
day before, and they were stiff after their 
first night of the season on the hard ground. 
When they finally got their clothes on and 
came over to the kitchen corner near the lake, 
they found Mrs. ver Planck busily serving 
breakfast. 

“Good-morning, lazy bones,” she said. 
“This is to be your job after this, but come 
along now and get your breakfast. Then 
you can wash the dishes. There ’s so much 
to be done this morning.” 

“Are you going to let us cook breakfast, 
hot-cakes and all?” asked Juliet. 

“Indeed I am. You and Jack and Jane 
67 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


can cook each morning in turn. I ’ll show 
you how, and then you can go ahead by your- 
selves. There is an alarm-clock in my suit- 
case that the ‘cook’ can take to bed. Dixon 
will have the fire made at six, and we will 
expect breakfast ready at seven.” 

“But I never cooked anything, Aunt Eliz- 
abeth. Boys don’t have to cook,” objected 
Jack. 

“Indeed they do, Jack,” said his mother, 
who was sitting on a cracker-box nearby, 
enjoying her breakfast. “There will be lots 
of times when you will be glad that you have 
learned something about it. Besides, it ’s 
fun. Watch your aunt toss those pancakes! 
Don’t you think you ’d like to do that?” 

“It won’t be hard, Jack,” said his aunt. 
“The mush will go into the ‘fireless’ the night 
before, and that will only have to be warmed. 
Then there is a coffee percolator in camp this 
year. I brought it especially for you chil- 
dren to use. There remains only the hot- 
cakes, or eggs, when we have them. You ’ll 
soon learn how. Whoever is cook will have 


68 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

to be responsible for washing the morning 
dishes. That does n’t mean that the others 
can’t help.” 

“I ’ll cook for you, Jack, if you ’ll wash 
my dishes,” suggested Juliet. 

“Not much,” was Jack’s answer. “I 
guess I can stand it if the others can.” 

“You can settle that among yourselves,” 
went on Mrs. ver Planck. “I would like the 
table set for dinner, and the dinner-dishes 
washed. You can take turns at that, too, 
I ’ll cook dinner, and maybe your Aunt 
Jennie will get supper. Most of that can 
go in the ‘fireless’ in the morning, Jennie. 
The rest will be just canned things.” 

“Oh, I ’d love to do that, Elizabeth, and 
I ’m sure I can help you with dinner, too.” 

“No; if you ’ll look after the supper, that 
will be all I need,” answered her sister. “I 
have to be busy with the baby at that time. 
We will do the dishes together while the chil- 
dren are cleaning up for bed. Dirk and 
Dixon will look after the wood-supply and 
milk the goats, when they ’re not too busy 
69 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

with the horses and their trail work. That 
will help a lot.” 

“Can’t I help, too, Mama?” cried Jan. 

“Of course you can,” said his mother. 
“There ’ll be wood to bring and potatoes to 
peel. You ’ll like that. There is plenty for 
everyone to do. And here is a wonderful 
hot-cake for you to eat this very minute.” 
She hurried back and forth from the stove 
to where they were sitting in a circle, keeping 
them well supplied. 

Dixon had put the camp-stove on a pile 
of stones, high enough so that it was easy to 
reach the oven without bending too much, 
and just behind it was pitched the supply 
tent. Here all the boxes and sacks which 
Aunt Jennie had watched disappear into the 
wagon the week before were neatly piled. 
The cook could see at a glance just where 
everything was. Beyond, nearer the lake, 
was a rock fireplace, with a huge caldron, 
black from many camping seasons, resting 
on top. Here was the hot water supply for 
70 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

all hands, and just beyond that was another 
pile of rocks to hold the wash-tub.” 

“We ’ll get the tables up this afternoon, 
after we bring up the rest of the supplies,” 
said Mr. ver Planck. “But you ’ll have to 
stand up to them to-day. We won’t have 
time to saw the logs for seats until to-mor- 
row. Where would you like them, Eliza- 
beth?” 

“Put one near the stove, please, and the 
big one near those trees,” pointing to a little 
group of pines nearby. “We ’ll get the 
morning sun there, and it won’t be too far to 
carry the things.” 

“Everything is very nicely arranged, 
Dixon,” she went on, turning to the cow- 
boy. 

“I ’d have done more, ma’am,” he an- 
swered, “but I had to put most of my time on 
the fence-work. But we ’ll soon have every- 
thing shipshape. I have the boughs cut for 
the beds. I kinder thought you ’d like them 
as much as anything.” 

71 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

“Good; then we can get right at them. 
You can start right in, children, when you 
get through helping your mother,” said Mr. 
ver Planck. “We ’ll be off now, Dixon, and 
bring up the rest of the supplies.” And to- 
gether they swung down the trail to the little 
meadow that had been fenced in for the sad- 
dle-stock. 

The children worked with a vim. Break- 
fast was soon cleared away and they com- 
menced to make the beds. 

“Don’t try to lay them too fast,” cau- 
tioned their mother. “They must last six 
weeks, you know. If you break off the tops 
and lay them straight up and down, the way 
your father showed you last year, you ’ll be 
much more comfortable.” 

“But, Mama, that takes so long,” said 
J uliet. “Why, it ’s almost a whole day’s 
job to make one bed.” 

“Well, make your Aunt Jennie’s prop- 
erly,” said their mother, “and you can suit 
yourself about your own.” 

72 


JULIET, JACK, JANE, AND JAN 
















V 

























* 































THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


“I ’ll come and help you,” said Aunt Jen- 
nie. “It won’t take us long.” 

The morning sped by, and it did n’t seem 
any time at all before Papa and Dixon were 
back again with the heavily loaded pack-ani- 
mals. Mama called “Lunch-time!” and 
they suddenly remembered that no one had 
set the table. 

“Well, there is n’t any table yet to set,” 
said Juliet. “But come on, Jane. It won’t 
take us a minute to get out the dishes.” 

An appetizing lunch was laid out under 
the trees on a piece of fresh, white canvas. 
Their mother had tacked grocery-boxes to 
the trees, low enough to be easily reached, 
and here they found the dishes neatly put 
away. 

“Hurry, children!” called Mrs. ver 
Planck. “You’ll find the soap in the box 
near the hot water, and towels are hanging 
on the same tree.” 

“My, that looks good!” said their father, 
when everything was finally ready, “and we 
75 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


all have appetites to do it justice. Come on, 
Blue Jays! Did you get much done this 
morning?” 

“We ’re half through with Aunt Jennie’s 
bed,” said Jane, “but we are n’t going to do 
ours that way. I ’m awfully glad that you 
and Mama have the air kind.” 

“May we swim to-day?” said Jack. He 
had been casting longing eyes at the lakes all 
the morning. 

“Yes, indeed,” said his aunt. “You may 
go in any day while we are in camp. But be 
sure and wait at least an hour after dinner, 
and tell either your mother or me when you 
go, so that one of us can be on hand. The 
lake is shallow near shore. If you don’t go 
out too far, you won’t have any trouble.” 

“Oh, I can swim,” said Jack. “Nothing 
will happen to me.” 

“Yes, I know,” said his aunt. “But this 
is fresh water, very different from the ocean. 
And it ’s cold, besides.” 

It was cold, as they found when they tried 
it that afternoon. Ten minutes of it proved 
76 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


all they could stand. Mama had some hot 
chocolate ready as a surprise when they came 
out, and then sent them off for a walk to 
warm up. 

“Climb to the top of that peak over there,” 
said she, pointing to the cliffs rising from 
one side of the lake. “Then you won’t be 
cold any more. That will be your boundary 
on that side ; on the other you can go as far as 
the brook, the overflow of the lake. There 
ought to be good fishing there when you have 
time for it.” 

For a week or more they stayed near 
camp, so busy every minute that they al- 
most forgot about riding. They helped 
their father and Dixon roll down logs which, 
set on end, made such good table-seats. 
They also finished the “cannery.” This was 
a deep hole, dug near the kitchen, where all 
the cans and other things that would n’t burn 
were thrown, to be buried out of sight before 
the family left, for they were old and tried 
campers, anxious to leave nature as they 
found it. In the afternoons the children 
77 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

rowed, fished, and walked, coming back with 
their hands full of wild flowers — dainty, 
Mariposa tulips, found near the melting 
snow, and great bunches of columbine. The 
table never lacked a pretty centerpiece. 
Juliet, who was especially fond of flowers, 
spent hours looking them up in the botany 
book, naming the new varieties that she 
brought in. 

Catching chipmunks proved an unex- 
pected source of amusement. Dixon 
showed them how to make a trap out of a 
grocery-box, with a door hanging down 
which they could shut with a sharp jerk by 
means of an attached string. Inside they 
scattered barley, and then, sitting at a little 
distance, they would patiently wait for 
an unsuspecting chipmunk to enter. He 
would come; there would be a pull of the 
string, and then a joyful whoop : “I ’ve got 
another! Help me to get him in the cage.” 
The cage was a large grocery-box with 
pieces of wood nailed closely together along 
78 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


the open side, but as the prisoners would 
succeed in gnawing their way to freedom 
almost every night, they never had many on 
hand at one time. Two or three times they 
were sent after snow, and in the evening 
were allowed to sit up around the camp-fire 
and enjoy the ice-cream that all hands had 
helped to make. 

One morning when they came to cook 
breakfast, which they usually did together, 
they saw their horses tied to the hitching log. 
Dixon had risen early and had caught them 
up. 

“We ’re off to the Lake-of-the-Woods to- 
day, children,” said their father. “We ’re 
going down the new trail that Dixon and I 
have been making. Hurry up with the 
camp chores. Your mother and Aunt Jen- 
nie put up the lunch last night when you 
were in bed, so we can get an early start.” 

Cinders was to be left to guard the camp 
from the roaming colts. “He might just as 
well stay home,” their father told the chil- 
79 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

dren. “His feet are still sore from the trip 
up. He would run with the horses, instead 
of riding in the wagon with Dixon.” 

They nearly all stayed at home, for just 
at the start little Jan came to grief. Dixon 
had blanketed their ponies, but had not 
tightened the surcingles. Jan got on with- 
out looking at his. Tommy, very frisky 
from his week’s free run, started off down 
the hill at a rapid gallop, with Jan hanging 
on tight to the blanket. The blanket turned 
and, still holding on for dear life, with his 
head down between Tommy’s front legs, 
Jan was carried over rocks and logs, just 
grazing them. A mighty war-whoop of 
“Whoa, there, Tommy!” from Papa and 
Dixon finally brought the pony to a stop, 
but not before Jan and all who saw him were 
thoroughly frightened. It took some per- 
suasion to get Jan to mount again, but 
finally they were off, Tommy on a leading 
rein this time, held by Papa. 

“I shall certainly get gray-haired on this 
trip,” said Mama to Aunt Jennie, as they 
80 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


brought up the rear. “That ’s too close a 
call! What next ?” 

They wound down one mountain, passed 
lonely falls, went through a rocky little val- 
ley, and so up again on the other side, but 
before they left the cliffs for the heavily 
wooded trail over the summit that would 
take them to their picnic grounds, they 
stopped a minute to look back. 

“It ’s as lovely as anything I ever saw in 
Switzerland,” said Aunt Jennie. “Look, 
Jack; how many lakes can you count?” 

“Six,” answered Jack. 

“Oh, I can see one more!” said Jane. 
“ ’Way, ’way down, past the little hotel. 
It ’s ever so small from here.” 

“And see what different colors they are,” 
said Juliet. “That one ’way off looks like 
a black diamond, and nearer they are deep 
blue.” 

“It ’s the shadows that make the differ- 
ence,” said their mother. “See that snow- 
bank stretching from that high peak right 
down into one of the lakes over there. This 


81 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


whole valley was once the bed of a tremen- 
dous glacier, and it scraped out the beds for 
these lakes.” 

“I ’m still wondering where the colts you 
brought are finding their pasture,” said 
Aunt Jennie. “So far I ’ve seen only rocks, 
trees, and water.” 

“Oh, there are little meadows here and 
there that you don’t notice. They are get- 
ting enough,” said her brother-in-law, “but 
they have to climb for it. That ’s one of 
the reasons we brought them up here. Y r ou 
see this life is as good for colts as it is for 
children. In the valley our pasture-land is 
soft, and their hoofs spread and get spongy 
if we keep them there all the time. But we 
must be getting on. Lead ahead, Dixon.” 

Lake-of-the- Woods proved a lovely spot. 
Great pines grew down to the edge of the 
water, and on the far side desolate cliffs rose 
steep and sheer. 

“It would be a fine place for deer, if it 
was n’t for the tourists,” said Dixon, “but I 
82 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


suppose they were frightened away long 
ago.” 

“We ’ll get plenty of deer in Alpine 
County next week,” said Mr. ver Planck. 
“We ’ll be there when the season opens, and 
we ’ll bring you back a quarter, Dixon.” 

“Do you suppose I could kill a deer?” 
asked Jack. 

Mr. ver Planck had been giving the chil- 
dren shooting lessons and Jack had proved 
himself a pretty good shot at hitting a large- 
size target. 

“I ’ll take you out with me, anyway, Jack; 
maybe you ’ll see one.” 

“Can’t we go, too?” asked Juliet and 
Jane. 

“We ’ll see,” said their father. “Now 
we had better have lunch, for we can’t stay 
long. Camp is far away, and we must be 
back early.” 

They had a delicious lunch on the shore, 
and afterward, while the grown-ups were 
resting, the children wandered off along the 
83 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

lake-side to hunt for bright-colored stones 
and cunningly bent pieces of driftwood. It 
didn’t seem any time to the little girls be- 
fore their father was calling them back, 
shouting, “Time to go home, everybody!” 
Dixon brought up the horses and they 
mounted. 

“Where ’s Jack?” said Dixon. He was 
still holding Merry, waiting for Jack to 
come and claim him. 

“Yes, where is Jack?” said his mother. 

“Jack! Jack!” called the children. 
“Hurry up ! Papa says it ’s time to go 
home.” 

But there was no answer ; only the echo of 
their voices from the cliffs beyond and the 
rustle of the wind in the tall evergreens. 

“Good gracious! He surely isn’t lost!” 
said Aunt Jennie, turning a little pale. 
“Where did that foolish boy go?” 

“I saw him go off among the trees right 
after lunch,” said Jan. “He said he ’d be 
back in just a minute.” 

“Perhaps he went back over the trail,” 

84 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

said Papa. “Don’t worry, Jennie. We ’ll 
surely find him. He can’t have gone far. 
But I don’t think you had better wait, Eliza- 
beth. Go on with the children ; we ’ll over- 
take you in no time.” 

“Oh, I hope Jack isn’t lost!” said Jane. 
“Poor Jack! Just suppose he has to stay 
out all by himself!” 

“And he might meet a bear!” piped Jan. 

“Don’t you think about bears,” said 
Dixon. “Them stories was n’t all true I 
was a-telling you the other night. There 
is n’t anything fiercer than a ground-hog 
around these parts, and I guess if we can 
track a deer, we can find a boy with feet as 
big as Jack’s.” 

“Won’t you go, too, Jennie? We won’t 
come back without him,” said Mr. ver 
Planck. 

“I ’d a great deal rather stay here, Dirk; 
that is, if Elizabeth does n’t need me,” said 
Jack’s mother. 

“Well, suppose you wait on the cliffs 
where we stopped to look back when we 
85 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


were coming in,” answered her brother-in- 
law. “There will be no use in our riding 
’way back here, if we find him nearer home. 
Now start along, children, and be careful. 
You ’d better get off and walk where it ’s 
very steep. Are you sure you know the 
trail?” 

“Of course we do,” said his wife. “Be- 
sides, Mopsa would return the shortest way. 
She knows where the barley sacks are.” 

All the way back the children kept look- 
ing over their shoulders, hoping to catch a 
glimpse of their father. 

“I do hope they ’ll come soon,” said Juliet. 

“Jack will be frightened,” said Jane. “I 
remember when I was lost last year.” 

“When you thought you were,” corrected 
her mother. “I never heard such a racket. 
But now you see how easy it is, do remember 
to stay in sight. It spoils everybody’s good 
time when a thing like this happens.” 

The children had had their supper and 
had gone to bed, much against their will, and 
Mrs. ver Planck had been sitting near the 
86 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

camp-fire an hour or so, getting more wor- 
ried every minute, before she heard the 
clink of horses’ shoes against the stones far 
below. 

“Is Jack with you?” she called. 

“All O. K.,” came back her husband’s 
voice out of the darkness, “and we hope 
you ’ve got something hot for us.” 

“Oh, Aunt Elizabeth!” said Jack, slip- 
ping off Merry and coming close to his aunt. 
“I’m so sorry I ’ve made you all so much 
trouble. I had a dreadful time, and you ’d 
just better believe I ’ll stay close after this.” 

“Well, if you ’ve learned that,” said his 
uncle, stepping up to the fire, “you ’ve 
learned a great deal. And here is another 
thing: if you find yourself in that kind of 
a fix again, don’t begin to move, but stand 
still and think. Think of where the sun is, 
and of where it was before you started, and 
if you ’ve just left a lake, look for the glim- 
mer among the trees and go hack to it.” 

“But that ’s just what I did, Uncle Dirk. 
You see, Aunt Elizabeth, I went back to 
87 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

find a stone I had noticed on the trail when 
riding in to the lake. It looked all golden, 
and I thought perhaps I might discover gold, 
and then — all of a sudden — the trail was n’t 
there, and I called and called, and no one 
answered. Then I began to run, because I 
knew you would all be waiting. And then 
I thought of the water, and I tried to find a 
tree I could climb to see if I could n’t see 
it, and at last I did find one, and I could see 
water shining ’way ’way off, and I ran and 
ran and ran, and when I got there it was n’t 
the same lake at all!” 

“Yes,” growled Dixon, “and you went 
over all those rocks. We had a grand time 
picking up the trail again.” 

“Well, we ’re all here at last,” said his 
uncle. “Now get warm and drink that nice 
hot soup Aunt Elizabeth has waiting for 
you. We won’t say anything more about 
it, but don't let it happen again!” 

“I should hope not!” said his mother. 
“Talk about white hair, Elizabeth! I ’ve a 
few new ones myself to-night!” 

88 


CHAPTER IV 


FEW days later, while they were sit- 



iTlL ting around the camp-fire, Mr. ver 
Planck asked suddenly, “Who is cook to- 
morrow?” 

“I am,” said Juliet. “We ’re going to 
have bacon and milk-toast. Mama said I 
might try some.” 

“Well, set your alarm-clock an hour 
ahead,” answered her father. “To-morrow 
we start on our horseback trip, and we must 
all be up bright and early.” 

“I should think so!” said Mrs. ver Planck. 
“There are the beds to make and camp-kit 
to pack, and all must be carried down the 
mountain again. I ’m glad I left that box 
of groceries in the wagon. Shall I put up 
a lunch?” 

“No,” said her husband. “It won’t be 
easy to get at things until we unpack for the 


89 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


night. We ought to reach Myer’s Station 
by noon; we ’ll join the Pater there. You 
will all enjoy a meal you have n’t planned or 
cooked, I ’m thinking. To-morrow morn- 
ing, as soon as you have finished breakfast,” 
he went on, turning to the children, “you 
can set out down the trail with Aunt Jennie. 
I shall use your horses to pack the blankets 
on.” 

“Aren’t we going to ride at all?” asked 
Jack, looking glum. 

“Yes, as soon as we get to the wagon,” 
answered his uncle. “You may ride all the 
rest of the day ; you ’ll be tired enough, I 
promise you.” 

“It ’ll be fun walking down,” said Jane. 
“We can run almost all the way. We ’ll 
go ’way ahead and will have lots of time to 
play at the hotel. I saw some nice looking 
children there the other day when we rode 
down for the mail.” 

“Be sure you know where you ’re going,” 
warned Aunt Jennie. “We don’t want any 
more lost children. I think you had bet- 
90 




























































THE BABY’S MORNING BATH 



THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

ter stay near me until we get to the last 
turn; then you can go ahead as fast as you 
care to. Shall I take the baby, Elizabeth?” 

“No,” answered Mr. ver Planck for his 
wife. “Mama will ride, and Just will go 
with her. It ’s too long a walk for him, and 
we don’t want a tired baby before we really 
start. Do you think after we reach the 
wagon that you can handle the team down 
those steep hills, Jennie? If you’d rather, 
I ’ll drive until we get to Myer’s.” 

“Of course I can,” said his sisber-in-law. 
“There is a good brake, is n’t there? I shall 
enjoy it.” 

“We ’ll ride nearby and open all the 
gates,” promised her brother-in-law. 

“Will you show us how to fix the blankets 
in the morning, Mama?” asked Juliet. 
“You did last year, but I ’ve forgotten.” 

“All right,” said her mother. “Run 
along to bed now. You must all be up be- 
times. Wake me when your alarm goes off, 
Juliet.” 

Camp was astir with the first, dim, morn- 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


ing light. Juliet had breakfast ready be- 
fore the sun was up, and the children ate 
theirs huddled around the fire, the air being 
cold and crisp. 

“Now for those beds!” said their mother. 
“Bring the cord, children.” She showed 
them how to spread the canvas and lay the 
blankets, tucking them in under the bottom 
quilt, just as they would under a mattress. 
Each bed had a fourteen-foot piece of can- 
vas, two feet wider than an ordinary, single 
bed. There were eyelets about eight inches 
apart all the way down the sides, a foot from 
the edge, and also along the extreme edge 
for about six feet, or the length of the bed. 
These were first tied over the blankets, lay- 
ing them across, and then the extra "canvas 
was brought up from the bottom, the whole 
being laced together along each side. 

“There!” said Mrs. ver Planck. “Now 
you have a bed that won’t come to pieces, no 
matter how it is packed. It ’s an ‘article of 
my own invention,’ and has served your 
father and me on many a cattle trip.” 

94 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


“We can take Cinders, can’t we?” asked 
little J an, coming up to where his sisters and 
mother were working. “His feet are well 
now.” 

“Yes,” said Mr. ver Planck. “We ’ll ask 
Dixon to rope off the kitchen ; then the colts 
can’t do any damage when he is not in camp, 
unless they eat up your beds, but you know 
you ’d love to make more,” and he laughed 
at the children’s faces. 

“If there ’s enough rope, we ’ll ask him 
to tie some around each bed,” said Juliet. 
“But I thought Dixon was going to stay 
right here. Mama.” 

“He is,” said her mother, “but he won’t 
be in camp all the time. He must go out 
among the horses every day, and there is 
some fence work your father wants him to 
finish.” 

The children and Aunt Jennie were far 
ahead when the others were ready to leave 
camp. They could just hear their voices 
away down below. 

“Give us a yodel, Elizabeth,” called her 
95 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


husband, as they came to an open stretch 
where valleys and mountains lay spread out 
before them. “This is just the place.” 

But a sleepy voice from the bundle in 
Mrs. ver Planck’s arms exclaiming, “Please 
don’t do that noise any more, Mama,” soon 
put a stop to it, and they wound on down the 
trail with just the clatter of the horses’ hoofs 
and an occasional whir of a humming-bird 
to break the morning silence. One of these 
dainty creatures buzzed on the tip of Mop- 
sa’s ear, but an indignant snort and a toss 
of her dainty head soon sent him on his way. 

It took some time to get the wagon packed 
and everything in place, but they were off 
at last, Aunt Jennie holding the team well 
in hand, with Little Just in a basket at her 
feet, where he could continue his interrupted 
nap, the others following on horseback. 
Two by two, came Jan and Jane, Juliet and 
Jack, with Mama and Papa bringing up the 
rear. The horses, full of spirit and glad to 
be off the rocky trail, went dancing along the 
road, the jingle of bits and the happy voices 
96 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

of the children making gay music as they 
went. 

It was a long ride, and despite the good 
time they made, it was well after twelve 
o’clock before they reached Myer’s Station. 

“Hello, Blue J ays ! What a j oily looking 
bunch!” was their grandfather’s greeting as 
the cavalcade pulled up in front of the long 
porch. “But how late you are! I ’ve been 
waiting for hours. What kept you?” 

“Nothing, sir,” answered his son, swing- 
ing off his horse to the ground. “We ’ve 
been coming ever since four this morning. 
Mount Tallac may look near, but it is n’t. 
Here we are at last, however, and very glad 
to see you. And all of us are ready for 
lunch, I ’m thinking.” 

The party welcomed a civilized meal with 
enthusiasm. 

“What are your plans, Dirk?” asked 
Grandpapa while they were eating. 

“We go as far as Dale’s sheep-range this 
afternoon. That is at the upper end of 
Hope Valley,” was the answer. “Just be- 
97 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

yond there is a good place to camp, and we 
can put the horses in Dale’s meadow, which 
will give them a chance to get something to 
eat. I ’m only taking enough barley for the 
driving team. Did you remember to bring 
blankets?” 

“Yes; my things are on the porch outside. 
I have everything I need. What next?” 

“Then we ’ll go to Deer Valley for the 
next night, and we ’ll be at Highland Lakes 
the day after. Three days will be spent 
there for hunting and fishing, and then we ’ll 
come back by the same road.” 

“How is the road?” asked his father. “In 
good shape?” 

“Very good, they say, as far as Blue 
Lakes,” answered his son. “Luther’s Pass 
is a part of the Woodbridge highway, and 
we may meet automobiles along there. 
After the lakes it ’s the same old neglected 
road. But we can go through all right. 
We did it before, — twenty years ago, you 
remember? I have an ax and saw in the 


98 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

wagon in case the road is blocked by fallen 
trees.” 

“Indeed I do remember,” answered his 
father. “I was just a green young Dutch- 
man in those days, and you and your broth- 
ers were about as old as Juliet here,” and he 
told the children how they had traveled, the 
boys riding bareback behind the team, just 
as they were doing now. “I don’t know how 
I ever got down that hill at Luther’s Pass. 
It was a terrible road, all rocks. I ’m glad 
to hear that conditions have improved.” 

“I don’t see why they call this a station,” 
said Jack after lunch while they were sitting 
on the long narrow porch in front of the 
hotel, waiting for the word to start. “There 
certainly is n’t any sign of a railroad round 
here.” 

“It used to be a stage station,” explained 
Juliet, “and still is, only now of course the 
stages are all automobiles.” 

Two o’clock saw them on their way again. 
About three miles beyond Myer’s Station 
99 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


they turned off the Tahoe road and headed 
toward Luther’s Pass. Beyond, up the 
valley, lay a long stretch of level road. 

“Here is a fine place for a race,” said their 
father, who was riding in front of the chil- 
dren. “Come on, see who can win!” Off 
they went as fast as their horses could go. 

“I don’t want to go so fast,” yelled Jan, 
who was doing his best to stop Tommy. 

“All right,” called his mother, “pull 
hard!” and she checked Mopsa to a steadier 
pace. But Juliet, who had been riding with 
her mother and Jan in the rear, was not to 
be beaten so easily. 

“Hurry up there, Gay; you can beat 
them! Hurry!” she cried, and leaning for- 
ward on Gay’s neck urged him to his fastest 
pace. 

Gay, more than willing, stretched himself 
and sped along, gaining every minute. 
Around a turn they went, leaning to the 
curve. Gay overtook the others as Jolly 
and Merry, neck and neck, were pounding 
over a little bridge. It was too narrow for 
100 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

three. Merry crowded over, Gay slipped, 
tried to recover, and then went over the edge 
with a crash and a splash! It was only a 
four foot drop, and the little river was deep 
enough to break the fall, but Juliet, not look- 
ing for such an ending to her race, was 
thrown headlong and went down flat into 
the water. 

“Papa! Papa!” she called, coming up with 
her nose and eyes full of water. “I can’t 
swim! I can’t swim!” For her only 
thought was that she was going to drown. 

“Stand up, child, stand up!” came her 
father’s quiet voice from the road. At the 
first sound of trouble he had turned his 
horse, which was ahead of the others, and 
had come racing back to straighten out the 
tangle. 

Juliet stood up, and finding that the water 
reached only above her waist, started to wade 
out. Gay was grazing unconcernedly on the 
bank. 

“Are you hurt, Juliet?” asked her father. 

“No,” she answered, trying not to cry, “I 
101 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


don’t think I am. But I ’m terribly wet. 
What shall I do? And oh, dear! In an- 
other minute, Papa, I would certainly have 
beaten those two!” 

“A little water won’t do you any harm,” 
answered her father. “We ’ll wait for the 
wagon, and perhaps Mama can find some- 
thing dry for you to put on. I ’m glad it 
was n’t any worse. Next time choose a bet- 
ter place to pass. What do you suppose 
would happen to me and my car if I crowded 
by the man ahead any old time. You must 
think. The trouble with you children,” he 
went on, addressing the three, “is that you 
don’t think. How about Gay? Is he 
scratched?” 

“There ’s a cut on his front leg,” said Ju- 
liet, examining her pony. “It ’s bleeding a 
little, but it does n’t look very bad. Per- 
haps Mr. Dale will have something I can 
put on it.” 

“There is a can of gall-cure in the wagon,” 
said her father. “Rub some of that in and 


102 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

he will be all right. He does n’t seem to be 
limping.” 

When Juliet and Gay were attended to 
they rode on at a trot until they reached the 
foot of the long hill which would take them 
through the pass. 

“Here is where the road was so bad a few 
years ago,” said their father. “You can see 
stretches of it here and there, left as it used 
to be where the grade has been changed, but 
now that it ’s a good automobile road we 
will probably meet some coming down. Be 
ready to turn out in a hurry. Many of the 
drivers are pretty careless about coming 
around the turns.” 

“It ’s the real woods, is n’t it, Uncle Dirk?” 
said Jack, looking up at the tall trees around 
him. “Are there any wild animals here?” 

“Oh, yes,” said his uncle. “Perhaps there 
are lots of eyes that we can’t see watching us 
now. There must be deer, and I saw tracks 
of a mountain-lion about here not so long 
ago.” 


103 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

Once past the summit, they stopped near 
Grass Lakes to allow their horses to graze 
a bit, while they waited for the wagon to 
overtake them. When it came up Mr. ver 
Planck said to his little son : 

“You had better get in, Jan. We will 
have to trot right along from now on. Turn 
Tommy loose; he will follow just like a big 
dog. And take Cinders with you; he looks 
tired, too. We can stay here a little 
longer,’’ he went on, turning to the others. 
“We ’ll take a short-cut as soon as we are in 
Hope Valley; that will save at least a mile. 
The wagon will have to go around.” 

“Can’t I ride Tommy?” asked Jack, who 
was getting very tired. He thought that 
perhaps a change in horses would make it 
easier. 

“You can try,” said his uncle, with a funny 
smile. 

So after a good rest they started on again. 
Down a little trail they went, trotting single 
file after Mr. ver Planck, Jack mounted on 
Tommy and his aunt leading Merry behind. 

104 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


But Tommy had his own ideas about carry- 
ing such a heavy weight. Three times he 
proved to Jack that he did n’t know all about 
riding yet. Jack wasn’t going to give up 
in front of his cousins, and he was ready to 
climb on again for the third time when his 
aunt, who was afraid that he might really 
be hurt against some rock, interfered. 

“Do get back on Merry,” she said, “and 
try Tommy some other time when you 
have n’t ridden so long.” 

Jack, only too glad to change to his for- 
mer mount, turned Tommy loose and 
mounted Merry. 

“There ’ll be a brook to jump, Jack,” said 
his uncle presently. “Do you think you can 
manage it?” 

“I ’ll do my best, Uncle Dirk,” answered 
Jack. “I can’t get any wetter than Juliet 
did,” and they all laughed together. 

The brook safely crossed, it was n’t very 
easy jumping for tired children — they soon 
came out again on the main road and headed 
up the valley. 


105 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


“Aren’t we almost there?” sighed Jane. 
“My goodness, I ’m so tired!” 

“Would you like to get in the wagon?” 
asked her father. 

“Oh, no,” answered Jane, “but I would 
like to get there.” 

They trotted on and on through the sandy 
valley, and it was dark before they drew up 
in front of Mr. Dale’s cabin. 

“Well, look who’s here!” said some one, 
coming out of the doorway. “Just in time 
for dinner, too! Get off, folks, and come 
right in.” 

“Oh, no,” said Mr. ver Planck, riding up 
and shaking hands, “There are too many of 
us. We ’ll just go down the road a bit and 
camp nearby.” 

“Not much you won’t!” answered Mr. 
Dale, for it was he who had greeted them. 
“You ’ll stop right here. These rocks are 
as good as any,” and he looked around at his 
little clearing. “The boys have been up to 
the lakes to-day and haye come home with 
the limit. We have more fish now than we 


106 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


can eat in a week, and there ’s half a deer 
hanging outside. Come right in. We wish 
there were more of you.” 

His wife came to the door just then and 
added her welcome. 

“It all sounds good to me,” said Mr. ver 
Planck. “I think we ’ll have to take you 
up. Get off, children, and we ’ll spend the 
night right here.” 

The children had their supper first. It 
consisted of fresh trout which Mr. Dale had 
promised them. He cooked it himself and 
watched their efforts to eat, finally coming 
to their help. 

“Does n’t look as if you ’d had much trout 
over by Tallac, if that ’s the best you can 
do,” he said. “Look here, the bones come 
out just as easy,” and he showed them how 
to open the fish down the center of its side 
as it lay flat on the plate. “Just lay back 
the flesh on both sides and then lift out the 
back-bone. See?” and he demonstrated his 
advice. “Like ’most everything else, it ’s 
easy when you know how.” 

107 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

The children went off to bed before the 
grown-ups sat down. 

“It will not take them long to go to sleep,” 
said Mrs. ver Planck, coming in from the 
little clump of trees where the beds had 
been spread. “They all are tired out. I 
don’t think much of your twenty miles, 
Dirk.” 

“Well, I guess it has been nearer thirty 
to-day,” said her husband with a grin. “I ’d 
forgotten how long this valley was. They 
made it all right, and it won’t hurt them to 
get really tired once in awhile.” 

Mr. Dale had helped unload the wagon 
and had noted the thin bundle of blankets 
that the children’s grandfather had brought 
with him. 

“I guess you forgot about mountain 
nights when you brought those,” he re- 
marked. “You ’ll sleep in the cabin to- 
night. There is an extra bed there, and you 
won’t freeze here, anyway.” 

The mystery of the extra bed was ex- 
plained in the morning when Mr. ver Planck 
108 



■ 


V<-' 

■ l 


WASH DAY IN CAMP 





THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

caught their host climbing down from the 
loft over the log-barn nearby. 

“It didn’t hurt me none,” he said, when 
taken to task. “I ’ve slept in lots worse 
places, and your father sure would have been 
cold under those few covers. You ’ll find 
ice on the water-pails, if you look.” 


ill 


CHAPTER V 


T breakfast that morning Mr. Dale 



±3L suggested that they stay over a day 
and climb the high peak nearby. 

“It ’s worth while,” he said. “It ’s a clear 
day, and maybe we can look right down to 
the ocean. I ’ve seen it from there more 
than once. It ’ll take only half a day, and 
the children can rest up all the afternoon. 
You ’ll make Highland’s easy to-morrow, 
for it ’s not as far as you came yesterday.” 

“Take the three older children, Dirk,” 
said Mrs. ver Planck. “Little Jan ought 
not to attempt it. We ’ll stay here and 


fish.” 


“All right,” said Mr. ver Planck. 
“We ’ll see if we have any alpine climbers in 
the family. Come on, children; get your 
horses as soon as you ’ve finished your hot- 
cakes, and we ’ll start.” 

As they rode up the Jackson grade Mr. 


112 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


Dale pointed to a fallen monarch by the 
side of the road. 

“That ’s the Kit Carson tree,” he said. 
“See, there ’s the stump over there with his 
name written on it! But he did n’t write it. 
The part he wrote was sawed out by a bunch 
of chumps and taken East to some fair. I 
wish some of us fellows had caught them at 
it ; they ’d have been a sick looking lot. This 
is called the Carson pass, and from the peak 
of Round Top, where we ’re going, you can 
look away over Carson Valley.” 

They tied their horses to the last clump 
of trees, beside a little lake, and then went 
on foot, slipping and sliding in the slippery 
shale. 

“You ’ll have to do better than that, 
Jane,” said her father, “if you want to get 
to the top. Lean out, not in toward the 
mountain; that will maintain your balance.” 

“But I ’ll fall,” objected Jane. 

“No, you won’t; try it. I learned that 
trick in the Swiss Mountains when I was a 
boy.” 


113 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

Gradually they made their way up, hang- 
ing on to the rough edges and digging their 
toes in the foot-holds that Mr. ver Planck 
showed them. Pulled from the front, 
pushed in the rear, higher and higher they 
climbed, till their horses below looked like 
tiny ponies. They stepped across deep fis- 
sures in the rocks that made Jane’s heart 
beat fast with something akin to fear; and at 
one point they passed the ruins of two 
shacks, the weatherbeaten planks scattered 
here and there among the rocks. 

“Who ever lived up here?” asked Jack. 

“Those were government observation sta- 
tions years ago,” said Mr. Dale. “But wait 
till we get to the top. Then I ’ll show you 
where three thousand people once passed the 
winter, just on the other side of the moun- 
tain. Summit City, they called it, and they 
had a terrible time.” 

“What did they do that for?” asked Jack. 

“Gold. They ’d do ’most anything for 
gold in those days,” answered Mr. Dale, 
“and will yet, I guess. I ’ve seen places in 
114 




THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

these mountains where they couldn’t get 
through until they ’d taken their wagons to 
pieces and lowered them with ropes down 
the cliffs.” 

Near the highest peak of all they found 
an old ladder built against the cliff, but the 
poles were rotten and Mr. ver Planck would 
not permit the children to use it. 

“I ’ll climb up, and you can pass them up 
to me,” he said to Mr. Dale. 

“It ’s like being on top of the world,” said 
Juliet, when they finally reached their goal. 
“Just look at the mountains all around, and 
the lakes, and such heaps of snow!” 

“There ’s a snow-bank near where we 
came up that we can go down on,” said her 
father. “You ’ll have the slide of your life. 
What ’s the matter, Jane?” 

Jane was sitting in a little heap, holding 
on to a rock, her lips pale and pressed close 
together. 

“It ’s too high,” she said. “I feel all 
trembly.” 

“You’ll be all right,” said her father. 

117 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

“Sit still a minute. See, there ’s lots of 
room up here; you can’t fall. You have a 
head like your mother’s. We climbed this 
mountain two years ago, and she did n’t like 
it at all ; but you ’ll outgrow it if you climb 
every summer. Come around on the other 
side now, Juliet. We ’ll get out the glasses 
and see if we can glimpse the ocean.” 

Far, far, off, across the mountain-tops 
and a wide, wide valley, there was a deeper 
line of blue, but so nearly the color of the 
sky that even with the help of the field- 
glass the children couldn’t be sure it was 
water. 

“How high are we, Mr. Dale?” asked 
Jack. 

“Something over eleven thousand feet,” 
was the answer. “I ’ve forgotten just the 
number. We ’ll look it up on a government 
map when we go below.” 

The descent proved no end of fun. 
When they had passed the steepest part 
they took to the snow. It was “the slide of 
118 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

their lives,” as Mr. ver Planck had prophe- 
sied. Taking hands, the three children in 
the middle, they sped down. 

“Don’t let go!” yelled Mr. Dale, and the 
two men at either end dug in their heels to 
act as brakes. 

With screams of joy and excitement from 
the children they landed with too much force 
for comfort in the loose shale, and they 
would have continued their slide if Mr. ver 
Planck had not stopped them. 

“Look out for your knickerbockers!” he 
called. “Your mother won’t think much of 
that!” 

Jack got up and felt his trousers. 

“My, I ’m as wet as sops!” he said, “but 
come on, girls; we can run down here,” and 
run they did, until they reached their horses 
again. 

“We ’ll go home through the woods 
around the mountain,” said their host. 
“There are two flocks of sheep below that I 
want to look over.” 


119 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

“I ’m so glad we stayed, Uncle Dirk,” 
said Jack, when they finally reached the 
cabin. “I like it all, but I think this has 
been the most fun yet.” 


120 


CHAPTER VI 


T HEY made an early start the next 
morning. Mr. Dale came up with a 
sack just as they were leaving, and tossed it 
on the load. 

“A mountain lamb,” he said; “I killed it 
for you last night. There are some deer- 
steaks, too ; have them for your lunch. And 
don’t forget that you ’ve promised to stay 
with us on your way back,” he called, as 
Grandpapa started the team. 

With shouts of thanks and good-bys they 
turned off into the lane that Mr. Dale had 
told them would bring them back into the 
main Hope Valley road. 

It was a good deal rougher going than the 
day before, but Mr. ver Planck, senior, was 
on the watch for rocks and they made it 
without any trouble. Back into Hope Val- 
ley, then down through Faith and Charity, 
121 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

the prettiest valley of all, they trotted, with 
here and there a sharp climb to test the 
strength of the wagon-team; then past blue 
lakes where the keepers of the dam came 
out to greet them and tell them that it was 
no use going farther, “a wagon just simply 
could n’t get through.” 

“We ’ll take a chance,” said Mr. ver 
Planck, and they went on down the steep de- 
scent into Deer Valley. Here they stopped 
for lunch and broiled the steaks that Mr. 
Dale had given them. 

“My, that ’s the best meat I ’ve ever 
eaten!” was Grandfather’s comment as they 
sat around the fire near the stream that flows 
through the little valley. “What a life this 
is for your children, Elizabeth!” 

“Yes,” she answered, “there is nothing like 
camping to bring out the good or the bad 
in people ; and, I ’m thankful to say, it ’s 
been mostly good so far. Do you remem- 
ber,” she went on, smiling at her babies, “all 
the ‘Oh, dears’ we had the first summer we 
came out?” 


122 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


“My, yes!” said Juliet. “Papa said there 
were so many ‘dears’ in camp, he certainly 
wouldn’t go out and hunt for more. But 
it ’s so much easier now; I suppose that ’s 
because we know how.” 

“Look at the sky,” said Jack. “Say, if 
this were n’t California and August, I 
should say we were going to have a rain- 
storm.” 

“We often have thunder-storms up here,” 
said his uncle, coming up from the bunch of 
horses where he had been giving the driving- 
team their barley. “We ’ve been lucky so 
far. It does look like a downpour, but we ’ll 
be in thick woods during the next four miles 
and you won’t get very wet. The beds will 
be well covered; that’s the main thing. 
You ’d better hurry up with the dishes, chil- 
dren, and we ’ll get the wagon packed before 
it begins.” 

“Take them right down to the river, Ju- 
liet,” said her mother. “There is n’t any hot 
water to-day.” 

Half an hour afterward Jack decided that 


123 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


California rains were as heavy as any he had 
seen in the East. They did not stop, but 
rode right along, sheltered by the tall tim- 
ber. 

“Don’t get too far ahead, Dirk,” the Pater 
had cautioned when they started. “This is 
the section those boys said I could n’t get 
through.” And his son promised to ride 
back if he saw anything that looked espe- 
cially difficult. 

They lost an hour or more sawing through 
a big tree that had fallen across the road, 
but except for that made good time and 
came out on the heights that overlook Her- 
mit Valley to see a double rainbow in the 
eastern sky. 

“No more rain!” shouted Jane, who was 
riding ahead. “Look! There is the prom- 
ise.” 

“It ’s a good thing,” said her father, “or 
we would n’t have had a very pleasant night. 
I did n’t bring a tent.” 

“Then we ’d all sit under the wagon,” said 
Juliet; “the way we did once before last 
124 




AT THE GOODFELLOWS CABIN 




THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

year. That was n’t so bad, but I ’m glad 
we don’t have to. Can we go ahead now 
and gallop when we get to the valley, Papa? 
It ’s a good road there, you know, and I ’m 
sure of the way.” 

“All right,” said her father, “but don’t 
get too far ahead. Mama and I will wait 
for the wagon and see if Grandpapa needs 
help ; there is a bad piece down this hill.” 

Aunt Jennie chose to walk with the baby 
when the wagon finally came up and she saw 
what lay ahead. She was glad, indeed, that 
she was out of it, watching the wagon lurch 
from side to side, bumping over the big 
rocks, looking every minute as if it would 
go over. But at last they made it, and came 
out below on the state road that leads to 
Markleville. 

“Now you have only one more rough 
stretch, and that ’s not so very bad,” en- 
couraged Mr. ver Planck. “We can easily 
reach the Goodfellows’ before dark, and 
camp in our old place.” 

Up the next grade, and then, turning once 
127 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

more off the main road, down, down they 
went, passing along an open valley, the road 
winding beside a rushing trout-stream. 
They forded the little river, the tired wagon- 
team stopping for a grateful drink, and 
gathering strength for the next steep climb, 
they pulled up the heavily wooded mountain 
ahead. Rounding a curve near the top, the 
riders came in sight of a beautiful meadow. 
In the background towered high rocks, 
gleaming with snow, back of which the sun 
was slowly setting, tinting the opposite hills 
a lovely pink. A rushing mountain stream, 
with here and there a waterfall, came 
tumbling down from the snow-banks, and 
then wound quietly away through the 
meadow. In the middle, under a clump of 
huge fir-trees, stood a little cabin. 

“Mr. Goodfellow! Mr. Goodfellow!” 
cried the children, riding up at a gallop. 
“We’ve come back again!” And the 
grown-ups, who were together in the rear, 
saw them jump from their horses and run 
to Mr. and Mrs. Goodfellow, the owners 
128 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

of the cabin, who came out to greet them. 

“Well, well, here are all the Blue Jays 
again !” said Mr. Goodfellow. “Seems to 
me you re flying very late.” As Mr. and 
Mrs. ver Planck rode up they all shook 
hands, and he went on: “I was wondering 
if you folks were n’t coming back this 
summer. We ’ve been looking for you 
every day.” 

“It ’s only for a few days, I ’m sorry to 
say,” answered Mr. ver Planck, dismount- 
ing. “We are showing my father and sister- 
in-law these mountains, and we could hardly 
skip the loveliest spot of all.” 

“Well, come right in,” said Mr. Good- 
fellow. “You ’re welcome to stay as long 
as you can.” 

“May we go back to our hillside camp?” 
asked Mrs. ver Planck. 

“Of course you can,” was the answer. “I 
have n’t let a camper go near that spot all 
summer. But first we ’ll all have dinner 
here. Now don’t say anything more,” as 
he saw Mrs. ver Planck hesitate ; “dinner ’s 
129 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


almost ready ; we ’ve got plenty, and you 
know you ’re always welcome.” 

“Is everybody like this in the mountains?” 
asked Jack of his aunt later in the evening. 
Mr. Goodfellow had insisted that Grand- 
father should take his guest-tent, and the 
others were warming up around the camp- 
fire on the hillside preparatory to going to 
bed. 

“We ’ve been especially fortunate in our 
friends, perhaps,” said his aunt, “but moun- 
tain hospitality is famous. I ’ve seen 
twenty or more people at dinner in the Good- 
fellows’ little cabin, half of them strangers. 
He always leaves it open, with plenty of 
supplies on hand. Did you notice the sign 
on the door?” 

“ ‘Clean up house and shut the door. 
This means yowl’” quoted Juliet, before 
J ack could answer. 

“Well, that ’s all he requires,” went on 
his aunt, “and the only times I ’ve seen him 
angry were when people came by, helped 
themselves to a meal, and then left dirty 
130 










































♦> 









l 





















* 
















HIGHLAND LAKE 



THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

dishes behind. He says we are welcome to 
everything he has, and he really means it.” 

“Do they stay here all winter?” asked 
Jack. 

“Oh, no,” said his aunt. “This is gov- 
ernment land, and all the mountain people 
have ranches below where they take their 
stock for the winter. They rent the pasture 
from the government, just as we have done 
for our colts this summer, and the rules are 
strict. The rangers tell them how much 
stock they can bring, when they can come 
in, and when they must go out in the autumn. 
If we should come late in October, we ’d 
probably find a lot of Indians in possession 
of this cabin. They come up from Nevada, 
and go through these mountains every au- 
tumn to gather pinenuts. Mr. Goodfellow 
has told me that the hills are carefully di- 
vided among the different tribes or families, 
and that each family can only gather nuts 
from certain groups of trees. No trespass- 
ing is allowed. The government has n’t 
anything to do with it ; they have decided the 
133 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

matter among themselves. Most of their 
fights start when one tribe encroaches on the 
rights of another.” 

“Then no one is here in the winter time?” 
questioned Jack. 

“Once in awhile a trapper lives here for a 
few months,” answered his uncle. “There 
was one in the cabin two years ago, and when 
the Goodfellows came back in June, they 
could n’t find their wash-tub anywhere. 
They looked all over the place, and it was n’t 
until the middle of the season that they lo- 
cated it high among the branches of a fir- 
tree. The trapper must have used it on top 
of the snow, and it had lodged there when 
the snow melted. I ’ve seen traps dangling 
down from the upper branches, when I ’ve 
been hunting around here, that have been 
left hanging there the same way.” 

“It ’s high time you were all in bed,” in- 
terrupted Mrs. ver Planck. “You’ve had 
a long ride. We ’ll have a late breakfast in 
the morning, so don’t get up early.” 

They had a comfortable night, for the 

134 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


hemlock beds they had prepared the year 
before were still soft. Early in the morn- 
ing, however, Mr. ver Planck was awakened 
by his little son, Jan. 

“Papa, Papa,” he said, leaning over the 
bed, “Cinders has his mouth full of pine- 
needles, and I can’t see to get them out. 
They ’re sticking out all over his head, too, 
and he ’s crying about them.” 

“Pine-needles?” said his father, sitting up 
in astonishment, and he whistled for the dog. 

Poor little Cinders came in slowly. He 
was a mournful sight. 

“Oh, you crazy pup !” said Mr. ver 
Planck. “Don’t you know enough to let a 
porcupine alone? We ’ll have a lovely time 
getting those out.” 

It was a good two hours’ job, but Cinders 
stood it nobly, licking the hand that hurt 
him, for he knew that the pain could n’t be 
helped. After he had finished Mr. ver 
Planck brought some of the quills over to 
the children and showed them the barbed 
ends. 


135 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


"Just like a fish-hook,” remarked Jane. 
"They must have hurt him dreadfully.” 

"I guess they did,” answered her father. 
"Cinders will have a sore head for some days 
to come. He ’s a sadder and a wiser dog.” 

"What are we going to do now?” asked 
Juliet, when they had finished the breakfast- 
dishes. 

"We ’ll stay in camp most of the morn- 
ing,” said her mother, "and then walk up to 
the lakes for a picnic-lunch. Grandfather 
and Aunt Jennie must see them. Run 
down the hill, children, and ask Mr. and 
Mrs. Goodfellow if they can’t join us up 
there.” 

A half a mile from camp two of the 
"Highland Lakes” lay close together, sep- 
arated only by a narrow strip of land. At 
one time they must have been one large lake, 
and before that probably were the crater 
of an old volcano. Now they drained in 
opposite directions, and each was the source 
of a big river. Here was splendid fishing, 
and after the picnic lunch the older children, 
136 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

aided by Mr. Goodfellow, caught a goodly 
mess, enough for supper for both camps. 
The elders, with the two little boys, walked 
to the farther lake to see the wonderful view 
from that point, mountains and valleys 
stretching out for miles ahead. 

“We are to have a good trail to the Yo- 
semite through here next year,” Mrs. Good- 
fellow told them. “Come up and we ’ll take 
it together,” she went on, turning to Mrs. 
ver Planck. 

“I ’d love to,” was the answer; “we ’ll do 
it if we possibly can.” 

The next day Mr. ver Planck and Jack 
left camp before the sun was up on that 
long-looked-for deer-hunt. 

“I ’ll take you next year,” their father had 
promised the little girls. “Perhaps Jack 
won’t have another chance until he comes 
West again.” 

Jack, carrying his precious ‘22,’ followed 
in his uncle’s footsteps. 

“Not so much noise, Jack,” cautioned his 
uncle, after they had walked a goodly dis- 
137 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

tance from camp. “A deer would hear you 
a mile away. You must be careful to put 
your feet down so that you don’t break any 
twigs. We may see one feeding, and if we 
don’t, we ’ll hunt in the underbrush later and 
see if we can scare one up. They make their 
beds there and sleep all day.” 

All morning they tramped without any 
luck. Once, while it was still early, Jack’s 
uncle pointed out a doe feeding on the hill- 
side, perhaps three hundred yards away. 
Jack, regardless of the distance, was ready 
to shoot in a minute, but his uncle caught his 
arm. 

“It ’ s a doe,” he whispered. “Keep quiet ; 
maybe we ’ll see a buck soon.” 

But at last they gave it up and turned to- 
wards camp. 

“If I could only see a buck,” Jack said to 
his uncle, “I ’d be perfectly satisfied.” 

“I ’d like to get one to take back with us,” 
Mr. ver Planck answered. “We really need 
the meat in camp, but I ’m afraid we won’t 
get any to-day. I know one more likely 
138 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

spot, though ; it is near here. Keep very 
quiet and we may jump one yet. If you 
were older, we could separate and have a 
much better chance. When hunting in the 
brush, it takes one man to scare them up and 
the other to shoot ; but I ’m afraid you ’d 
shoot in the wrong direction.” 

“Let me unload, Uncle Dirk,” said Jack, 
“and I ’ll see if I can find one for you.” 

“All right,” said his uncle. “You can try, 
at least. 

They walked on. Soon Mr. ver Planck 
stopped and pointed to a canon opening to- 
ward their left. 

“Climb up near the top, and then go along 
the ridge on this side until you reach that 
clump of trees,” he said. “Then cross over 
and come down the canon and so back to- 
ward me, making as much noise as you 
please. Perhaps you will jump one. If 
you do, it will run towards me.” 

They separated, and Jack cautiously made 
his way up the steep hill. When he came 
down the other side he found the brush so 


139 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

thick in places that he had to get down on 
his hands and knees to get through. He 
passed one spot that looked like a deer’s 
bed. Suddenly there was a rustle behind 
him, and a deer he had n’t seen sprang up 
and dashed out of the tunneled runway it had 
made for itself. Bang! Bang! came the 
sound of his uncle’s gun, and then a shout, 
“I got him!” Jack crawled on as fast as he 
could and ran to where his uncle was stand- 
ing, his eyes fixed on the brush ahead. 

“Why don’t you follow him, Uncle 
Dirk?” he called anxiously. 

“Wait a bit,” was the answer. “He went 
down, but he sprang up again, and if we fol- 
low him now, we may have to go a mile or 
more to get him. He went into that brush 
over there. If he once lies down, he won’t 
get up again. That was a fine chance and 
we would n’t have had it if we had stuck to- 
gether, so he is as much your deer as he is 
mine.” 

An hour or more later, when they had fol- 
lowed the bloody trail and Jack saw the 
140 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

beautiful creature lying dead in the under- 
brush, he was heartily sorry that he had had 
anything to do with killing it. He helped 
his uncle drag it out and tie it to the branches 
of a tree with a rope Mr. ver Planck had 
been carrying over his shoulder all morning. 
Then he followed him back to camp very 
silently. He didn’t say much when the 
other children questioned him about the 
hunt, and as soon as he had his mother to 
himself, he came close beside her and said : 

“Mama, I never want to go hunting again. 
I thought it would be lots of fun, but I ’ve 
felt queer ever since we shot that deer, — all 
sort of choked up inside.” 

“I ’m glad you feel that way about it,” 
answered his mother. “It is n’t right to kill 
just for fun, but you see it makes a differ- 
ence when people really need the meat; and 
then, if no deer were shot, they ’d become an 
awful nuisance. You have to remember 
that side of it, too.” 

Mr. ver Planck had saddled a horse of 
Mr. Goodfellow’s, his own being turned out 

141 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


on the range, and had gone right back again 
to bring the deer home. The whole family 
was gathered around the cabin door when he 
came riding in. 

“Oh, Jack,” he called, “you missed it! I 
wish you ’d come with me. What do you 
suppose I found trying to steal our deer- 
meat?” 

“What?” chorused all the children. 

But Jan had n’t forgotten Dixon’s stories 
and now called out: “Was it a bear, a real 
bear. Papa?” 

“You ’ve guessed it,” was the answer, 
“and if we had n’t tied it away out and down 
from the limb, we certainly would have lost 
it, and Mr. Bear would have enjoyed a good 
dinner. There he was,” he went on, turning 
to Mr. Goodfellow, “sitting on the branch 
above, doing his best to get at it.” 

“Did you shoot him, Papa?” asked Juliet. 

“Oh, no; bears don’t do any harm,” said 
their father. “I drove him higher, and then 
cut the deer down. Perhaps he ’s sitting 
there yet.” 


142 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


“Can’t we go right out and see him?” 
asked Jane. 

“Too far, Jane,” said her father, “but 
maybe you ’ll meet one some day in the 
woods and see all you want of him.” 


143 


CHAPTER VII 


I T was decided that they would spend an- 
other day at Highlands. The children 
longed for a chance to fish in the little river 
that had its source at the foot of the two 
lakes where they had made many a famous 
catch in other years; and they wanted to 
climb the cliffs behind the cabin and show 
Jack “Lost Valley,” a little grassy glen set 
high in the rocks, always full of wild flowers 
at this time of year. The trail thither 
led over a steep snow-bank. Juliet and 
Jane knew it well, for the milk-goats in 
camp the year before had preferred that spot 
to any other, and almost every evening the 
little girls had had to take the climb to drive 
them down. 

So the next morning, as soon as they were 
finished with camp chores, they gathered 
their fishing-tackle together and started 
down the hill, stopping at the cabin to say 
144 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

good-morning to their grandfather. He 
had breakfasted with the Goodfellows and 
now was sitting on the salt-log near the 
cabin, enjoying the warm sunshine. Mr. 
Goodfellow was working nearby on a fish- 
pole for Jan. 

“Wait a minute, Blue Jays,” he said, “and 
I ’ll go with you. How is this, Jan? 
About your size?” and he held out a light 
rod which Jan took with great delight. 

“Oh, surely I ’ll catch something with 
that! Thank you, Mr. Goodfellow. 
That ’s lots nicer than this old stick,” and 
Jan threw away the crooked branch with 
which Juliet and Jack had provided him. 
“Now I can fish as well as anybody. Come 
on, all you people!” 

“Don’t go until the bread is in, Charlie,” 
called Mrs. Goodfellow, appearing at the 
cabin door and waving her apron in a good- 
morning to the group. “It ’s all raised and 
in the ovens. Is n’t that fire ready?” 

“It will be soon,” answered her husband. 
“I ’ll wait. Sit down, children. So you 
145 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


like our mountains?” he went on, turning 
back to their grandfather. 

“Health by the spoonful, I call it,” an- 
swered Grandfather. “Just to think that 
I have lived in California all these years and 
have never known there was such a spot as 
this! I don’t wonder that my son keeps 
coming back here every summer, instead of 
searching out new places.” 

“Yes, it ’s a great place,” agreed Mr. 
Goodfellow. “It ’s always fine weather up 
here. Maybe we do have a thunder-shower 
once in awhile, but that ’s nothing ; and 
we ’re so well protected here by the high 
cliffs on three sides that we don’t get the 
heavy winds. Why, down in any of the val- 
leys below us you ’d be sure to be cold at 
night, and when you woke up in the morn- 
ing your blankets would be wet. Now here 
it does n’t get cold until snow-time, and the 
air is so dry that we never have any dew. 
I wish you folks could stay longer. Can’t 
you?” 

“You’ll have to ask my son,” answered 
146 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


Mr. ver Planck. “I ’d like nothing better, 
but he is the boss on this trip. Here he 
comes now. How about it, Dirk?” he went 
on, as the children’s father joined them, the 
baby riding on his shoulder. “Must we go 
right back?” 

“To-morrow morning bright and early,” 
said his son, swinging little Just to the 
ground. “Dixon has his orders to be at the 
beginning of the Tallac trail every day after 
Thursday until we come. But it takes him 
almost a day to get the extra pack-animals 
up and make the trip up and down, and I 
don’t want him to lose his time that way. 
Then you know Jennie and Jack will have 
to leave us soon, for she has promised to be 
in New York early in September, and it ’s 
almost time for you and me to be getting 
back to the ranch. Perhaps you had for- 
gotten that there is a ranch?” 

“It ’s easy to forget up here,” and his 
father smiled. “Still, I suppose our bread 
and butter has to be looked after once in 


awhile.” 


147 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

“Well, if you must go, you must,” said 
Mr. Goodfellow. “Pack everything you 
can to-night, and don’t try to cook in the 
morning. You ’ll breakfast with us in the 
cabin. We ’ll round up the horses this 
afternoon, and then you can start right out. 
Not that I want to hurry you, you know, 
but I know what it ’s worth to get an early 
start.” 

“That ’s awfully good of you,” said Mr. 
ver Planck. “We will be glad to do it, if 
it is n’t too much trouble for you and Mrs. 
Goodfellow. What are you waiting for, 
children? Hadn’t we better be going?” 

“It ’s baking day,” answered Mr. Good- 
fellow for them. “I told them I ’d go with 
them, but first we must wait for the fire to 
burn down a bit so I can get the ovens in. 
It looks to be almost ready now.” 

“I ’ll stay and do that,” volunteered Mr. 
ver Planck. “If you go, they won’t need 
me, and you know I ’m not much of a fisher- 
man.” 


148 



THE DEER KILL 



A CAMP BED IN THE OPEN 



THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


They left him shoveling out the ashes 
under Mrs. Goodfellow’s directions. 

“Don’t forget to take the bread out,” 
called back Mr. Goodfellow. “If you let it 
burn, you ’ll be awfully sorry, for I heard 
my wife say she was making an extra loaf 
for you folks. And call back your dog; he 
is n’t welcome on this trip.” 

Cinders turned back most unwillingly. 
He couldn’t understand their going off 
without him, but he soon forgot his troubles 
in making friends with the two collies of the 
camp. One of them stationed himself in 
front of the baby. The elders, absorbed in 
their occupation of properly covering the 
bread, were not paying much attention to 
the group. Presently a deep sigh from the 
little boy reminded his father of the child’s 
presence. He turned to see him solemnly 
shaking the dog’s paw over and over. 
Every time the baby let go, the dog would 
offer his paw again. Just gave his father 
an appealing glance. With a suggestion of 
151 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

tears in his eyes, he said: “How much 
longer must Just shake hands with this dog? 
Just is so tired!” His father rescued him 
with a laugh and then went back to the bak- 
ing. 

The children fished all morning and had 
splendid luck. They got back too late for 
lunch, but that troubled them not at all. 
The three older ones filled their pockets with 
dried prunes and crackers. They each 
found a sack to use on the snow-slides, and 
Juliet, slinging the spy-glass case over her 
shoulder, called Cinders, and they started on 
their climb. Jan had had enough and de- 
cided to stay in camp for the rest of the day. 

Halfway up the cliffs they came to the 
long snowdrift that never melts. Here they 
had some glorious slides, using their sacks 
as sleds. Then they climbed on up, and ex- 
plored the little valley. 

“I ’ll tell you what let ’s do,” said Juliet, 
while they were sitting on the rocks at the 
lower end of the valley, eating their crackers 
152 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

and prunes. Juliet and Jack were near the 
edge, their feet hanging over, and Jane was 
a little behind. “Let ’s go up to the Three 
Trees, then cross back over the cliff and 
down to the lakes, and so come down by that 
trail.” 

“We ’d better not,” said Jane. “It ’s out 
of bounds.” 

“Oh, those last year bounds!” sniffed 
Juliet. “They don’t count now. Besides, 
what could happen to us? We could n’t get 
lost. You can see those three trees from al- 
most anywhere ’round here, and I know the 
way. We ’ll get a fine view from the top, 
and we have the glasses. Come on ; let ’s 
go!” 

“Let ’s leave these old wet sacks here,” 
said Jack. “We ’ll never need them again.” 

“All right,” Juliet answered. “We ’ll 
spread them over the rocks to dry; then, if 
Mr. Goodfellow says he wants them, we ’ll 
come up in the morning and get them.” 

“Are you sure you know the way down?” 

153 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

asked Jack. He still remembered his ex- 
perience near the Lake-of-the-Woods and 
did n’t want to repeat it. 

“Of course,” said Juliet. “The lakes are 
just on the other side, and Jane and I have 
been there hundreds of times. Come on!” 

It was a hard climb to the Three Trees, 
the little clump of scraggly pines they had 
seen from below. They stood by themselves 
away above the tree-line, and when they 
reached them all were puffing and panting. 
But they felt well rewarded when they used 
the glasses and recognized some of the peaks 
they had seen from Round Top and during 
their ride over to Highlands. 

“We ’re not as near the sky as we were on 
Round Top,” said Jane, “but it ’s high 
enough for me. Look, Jack, that ’s Folger 
behind us, and ’way ahead is Silver Moun- 
tain. There used to be lots of mines over 
there in the old days.” 

“Mr. Goodfellow says there are shafts 
sunk around here,” said Juliet. “Do you 
remember, Jane, the tunnel we found last 
154 , 


AT FALLEN LEAF 





THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


year when we were out with Mama? We 
were sure it was a real bear’s den and were 
so disappointed when we found it was noth- 
ing but an old hole in the ground that Mr. 
Goodfellow knew all about.” 

“Did you go in?” asked Jack. 

“No,” said Juliet. “Mama wouldn’t let 
us. It was all dark, and, of course, wild ani- 
mals might have been inside. We were al- 
ways going to return with some candles and 
explore it, but it was too far away from 
camp, so we never did. I think I can find it 
again, though, and some day I ’m going to 
try.” 

U 1 wonder how deep those holes are,” said 
Jack. “They must have been hard to dig up 
here in the rocks. I shouldn’t like to fall 
down one.” 

“Well, come along, you two,” said Jane. 
“You know it ’s pretty far around by the 
lakes. I wish we were going home the other 
way.” 

“Pooh!” retorted Juliet, loftily. “What 
are you afraid of? Cinders wouldn’t let a 
157 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

bear come near us, if we did see one, and Mr. 
Goodfellow says he has n’t seen a mountain- 
cat around here for years.” 

“What ’s a mountain-cat?” asked Jack. 

“It ’s a kind of lion,” said J uliet, “lots big- 
ger than a wild-cat. I would n’t like much 
to meet one, either, but I know of two chil- 
dren who fought one off, and they were n’t 
as big as we are.” 

“How did they do it, Juliet?” asked Jane, 
coming close to her sister and giving a scared 
look over her shoulder. “Tell us about it.” 

“Well, they were going out to get the cows 
or something, and the lion jumped on the lit- 
tle girl. Then the boy, instead of running 
away, hit at it with a stick he happened to 
have in his hand just as hard as ever he could ; 
and it turned on him, and then she, even 
though she was all scratched up, helped him 
fight it and about gouged one of its eyes out. 
The horrid thing did n’t like that at all, so it 
ran away. I think their father or somebody 
shot it all to pieces afterward.” 

“My!” exclaimed Jack. “Pretty plucky 
158 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

kids, I call those two. I ’d like to know 
them. But come on, girls ; I don’t know how 
much farther it is, and it ’s getting late. 
That ’s a dandy looking snowslide ahead be- 
tween those high rocks. Let ’s take it. 
Now I wish we ’d brought our sacks.” 

“A little wet won’t matter now,” said 
Jane. “We’ll be going right back to 
camp.” 

So, with Jack in the lead, the three started 
down, going faster and faster, slipping and 
sliding, rolling over and over in their efforts 
to stop themselves. Cinders bounded down 
over the rocks at the side, keeping an eye on 
the three. 

Suddenly there was a shriek from Jack, 
not of joy this time, but of terror. The 
snow gave way and he disappeared! 

“Oh! oh! Juliet! Stop!” yelled Jane. 
“Jack has gone down! Oh, stop! Please 
stop!” and Jane dug in her heels and tried 
hard to sheer off to one side of the yawning 
gap in front. She shot by, and Juliet, just 
behind, managed to stop on the very edge. 

159 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

Quickly she turned, and lying down full 
length on the snow, cautiously looked over 
the brink. 

“Jack! Jack! Are you there? Are you 
hurt? Are you very deep down? Hang on 
to my legs, Jane!” she shouted over her 
shoulder to Jane who was climbing back as 
fast as she could, breaking the snow with her 
heels so as to get a foothold. “And don’t 
shake the snow so much ; maybe it will all go 
down. Jack! Jack! Why don’t you an- 
swer ? Where are you ?” 

Gradually her eyes grew accustomed to the 
dark interior of the hole. It narrowed down, 
and fifteen feet or more below she could dis- 
tinguish a silent form, the snow piled high 
around it. It stirred, and Jack straightened 
up and shook himself. 

“Where the dickens am I?” he grumbled, 
very much surprised. Then, in a sudden 
panic, remembering where he had been a 
minute before, he yelled: “Jane! Juliet! 
Juliet! Jane! Juliet!” louder and louder. 

“We ’re up here, Jack,” called Juliet. 

160 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

“Are you all right? Oh, dear, do be careful 
not to go any farther down.” 

“I guess I ’m most in China now,” said 
Jack. “How do you think I ’m going to 
get out of here?” 

“Let me see, too, Juliet,” urged Jane anx- 
iously, and she tugged at Juliet’s feet in an 
effort to slide her back. 

“Wait a minute, Jane!” and Juliet kicked 
back impatiently. “Jack ’s awfully far 
down. We ’ve got to get him out somehow.” 

Jane stopped her tugging, but slid herself 
forward. Cinders joined them, and Jack, 
looking up from below, saw two little curly 
heads and the dog’s pointed nose peering 
down at him. 

“Get around on the other side,” he called. 
“I can see rocks all the way up there. Then 
you won’t fall in, too. I think I can climb a 
little way, but it ’s awfully steep. I wish we 
had a rope.” 

“We ’ve got the strap from the glasses,” 
suggested Juliet. “But of course that ’s not 
long enough. Here, Jane, we ’ll lengthen 
161 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

it with our sweaters. Maybe that will 
reach.” 

The little girls worked with a vim, while 
Jack felt around below and tried his best to 
get a start up the steep sides. He climbed a 
few feet, only to slip and fall back again. 

“This must be one of those shafts you were 
talking about,” he called up. “It is n’t a bit 
like a real hole. How high do you think I 
can jump, anyway?” he went on to Juliet, 
who was leaning over the edge and lowering 
a queer looking rope. “That thing does n’t 
come within ten feet of me. You ’d better 
go home and ask Uncle Dirk to come and get 
me out.” 

“He won’t be there,” said Juliet. “Don’t 
you remember? He and Mr. Goodfellow 
were going out after the horses. Besides, it 
would be dark before we ’d get back. You 
wait; we ’ll fix the rope. Here, Jane!” and 
Jack heard a whispered consultation above, 
followed by a giggle from Jane. 

Pretty soon down came the rope again, 
162 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


lengthened to the extent of two little blue 
“middies,” the middle sleeves tied together 
and the lower one dangling over Jack’s head, 
looking for all the world like a real arm 
stretched down to rescue him. 

“Oh, if it were only a little longer!” said 
Jack. “Lean ’way over, Juliet. Maybe 
then I can reach it.” 

“That would n’t do any good,” answered 
Juliet. “We ’ve got to be able to pull.” 

“Here, haul it up again, Juliet!” called 
Jane. “I ’ve an idea. Take these,” and 
Jane, unlacing her boots, drew off her stock- 
ings. “Now it ought to reach. Are you 
sure the knots are good and strong? Let ’s 
try again.” 

“That ’s fine,” said Jack, when Juliet had 
lowered it again. “Now haul away. I can 
see lots of rocks to help, just a little farther 
up. Are you ready? Well, then, pull!” 

The little girls hauled and tugged, and 
pulled and hauled. Slowly, very slowly, 
Jack made his way up. 

163 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


“Pull, girls, pulir he shouted once, while 
he was passing a bad place. “Oh, pull 
hard!” 

And they did pull, just as hard as ever 
they could. Once they let him slip back a 
few feet, when Jane lost her footing, and 
Jack would have gone all the way down 
again, if he had not caught at a jutting rock 
to steady himself. But gradually, with fre- 
quent stops to rest whenever he reached a 
place where he could hold himself, they 
brought him to the top. The triumph of see- 
ing his head appear over the edge was worth 
all the work. 

“You’re out! You’re out!” yelled Ju- 
liet, as she and Jane sank back in the snow 
with gasps of relief. “O Jack, I ’m so 
glad you ’re up again !” 

Their cheeks were flushed, and all three 
were trembling with the strain and the ex- 
citement. Jane was the first to recover. 

“Here, give me my stockings. Let ’s get 
our clothes on, Juliet. There was n’t much 
164 


. 

■ 






























































MIDSUMMER SNOW 

Where the Blue Jays had their snow-slides and where Jack fell into an old mine shaft 



THE GOODFELLOWS’ CABIN 

The horses are enjoying the salt log 



THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

left to take off. Ugh! How red my legs 
are! Help untie the knots, Jack.” 

“Let ’s get off the snow before we do any- 
thing,” said Jack. “I ’m not going to fall 
down any more of your old mines ; and we ’ll 
go back to camp by the way we came. I ’ve 
had enough for one afternoon, and I want to 
get home.” 

“It will be hard to climb up again the way 
we slid down,” said Juliet. “I really think 
the lake trail is the shortest now.” 

“No, it isn’t, Juliet,” Jane denied. 
“We ’ll go back just the way Jack wants 
to; he fell in the hole, and he ought to have 
the say.” 

“Well, I ’d like to know who pulled him 
out, if we didn’t!” retorted Juliet. “But 
come on; if you want to climb all that way 
back, I suppose we ’ll have to, only we ’ll try 
to find an easier way.” 

They went around three steep divides be- 
fore Juliet saw a way up that suited her. 
Then they climbed in silence. The excite- 
167 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

ment of Jack’s fall and the work of freeing 
him had told on them more than they re- 
alized, and all three were feeling tired and 
cross in consequence. They came to the top 
and looked down on the other side. 

“That’s not Lost Valley!” exclaimed 
Jane. “Look, Juliet, it ’s altogether differ- 
ent. Why, it ’s much bigger than Lost 
Valley, and it has ever so much more grass 
in it.” 

“It must be,” said Juliet, but her voice 
sounded doubtful. “There is n’t any other 
valley like that around here. It ’s just got 
to be.” 

“But it isn’t, Juliet,” went on Jane. 
“Where are the Three Trees? I don’t see 
them anywhere.” 

“What’s the matter?” asked Jack. 
“Are n’t we going right?” 

“Something is wrong,” admitted Juliet. 
“I ’m not quite sure which way to go. 
Please come back and go down by the lakes ; 
we can’t miss it that way.” 

“Well, I suppose we ’ll have to,” 
168 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


grumbled Jack, “if you don’t know your 
way ahead. But we ’d better hurry. The 
sun is down and it ’s getting dark. Uncle 
Dirk won’t like our being out so late.” 

They turned, but not quite far enough, 
and they tramped on and on without coming 
in sight of any lakes. 

“We ought to be going down more,” said 
Juliet. “Oh, I wish it would n’t grow dark 
so soon ; everything looks so different. 
Hurry, Jack and Jane; we must get back. 
They will be so worried about us.” 

“It must be ever so much farther round 
this way,” said Jack, presently when they 
had walked for more than an hour. “I wish 
we ’d tried to find Lost Valley again. 
Camp was only a little way from there. 
Say, Juliet, do you think we ’ll ever get to 
the lakes?” 

“We must come to them pretty soon, we 
just must,” said Juliet. “Hurry, hurry, 
and don’t talk so much.” Juliet’s voice was 
tremulous with suppressed tears. She was 
running ahead, jumping over the rocks. 

169 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

Jack and Jane came panting behind, Jane 
having all she could do to keep up. 

“Do you think she knows the way?” asked 
Jack, as they ran on together. “It ’s get- 
ting awfully dark; we can’t see much 
longer.” 

“I don’t remember it as being so far as 
this,” Jane answered. “But surely we must 
come to the lakes soon. Juliet, Juliet, wait 
a minute!” she called, “you ’re getting so far 
ahead that we can’t see you.” 

Juliet stopped, and as they came up to 
her they saw that she was crying. Jane, 
worried as she was about their predicament, 
was even more distressed by her sister’s 
tears. 

“Don’t cry, Juliet,” she said. “Don’t 
cry; we ’ll find the way somehow.” 

But Juliet was not to be comforted. 

“I don’t know where we are!” she wailed. 
“We ought to have reached the lakes long 
ago, and it ’s getting so dark we can’t see 
to look for them any more. It ’s all my 
170 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

fault. I knew we ought not to have come 
out of that valley and broken bounds. Cin- 
ders! Cinders!” she went on, hugging the 
little dog who, whining in sympathy, had 
stuck his head in her lap. “Why can’t you 
show us which way to go?” 

“He probably would,” said Jack, “if we 
could only explain. Never you mind, Ju- 
liet,” and he gave her a comforting slap on 
the back. “I know just how you feel, but 
it ’s nowhere near as bad as getting lost all 
by yourself.” 

“Do you think we ’re really lost?” asked 
Jane. There was an awed finality in her 
voice that would have made her mother’s 
heart ache if she could have heard it. “Are 
we really lost, Juliet? Don’t you suppose 
they will ever find us?” 

“Of course they will,” said Juliet, sitting 
up straight as she realized that her little 
sister needed cheering. “Of course they 
will, and maybe they ’ll find us to-night. 
Now if we only had a fire, we would n’t mind 
171 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

very much ; and that would show them where 
to look for us. Let ’s see if we can make 
one.” 

“How?” questioned Jack. “I haven’t 
any matches. I wish I had.” 

“Well,” said Juliet, doubtfully, “the In- 
dians do it by rubbing sticks together. We 
can try that.” 

The three little figures, so despondent a 
minute before, were suddenly full of action. 
They collected sticks and started rubbing 
them together with all their might. Jack 
was the first to stop. 

“Bah! I might go on rubbing those 
things together for a week,” he said, dis- 
gustedly. “I don’t believe any Indians ever 
made fire that way. We ’d better go on be- 
fore it gets too dark to see anything.” 

“There is n’t any use in going on,” said 
Juliet. “I don’t know which way to go. 
We must have been going in the wrong di- 
rection for ever so long, and it ’s too dark 
now to pick our way farther. We might 
fall down another dreadful hole. I can tell 


172 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

which way to go in the morning. Don’t 
you remember, Jane? The sun shines right 
in our eyes when we wake up, and then it 
goes down the hill toward the Goodfellow’s, 
so we ’ll have to go toward it to get back to 
camp. I ought to have looked when it went 
down to-night, but I never thought of it.” 

“If I had n’t fallen down that mine, we ’d 
have been all right,” said Jack. “Well, I ’m 
out of that, anyway. Now what shall we do 
until morning?” 

“If we had kept right on after that and 
not turned back, we ’d have been all right, 
too,” Juliet could not help answering. 

Jane, seated on a low rock, was leaning 
forward, her hands still holding the sticks 
which she had been rubbing to so little pur- 
pose hanging down in front of her. 

“I remember a picture in my history 
book,” she said, not paying attention to the 
other two. “William Penn was buying 
some land, and right in front of him, leaning 
over a log, was an Indian whirling a stick 
between his hands. I believe that ’s the way 
173 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


to make fire. I ’m going to try,” and she 
jumped up and started to hunt up a log to 
meet the requirements. 

“I remember,” said Juliet. “But I sup- 
pose it was just a certain kind of a log. 
I ’ve seen sparks when stones hit together. 
Could we get anything out of that, do you 
think?” 

“Not just two stones, Juliet,” corrected 
Jack. “It takes a horse’s shoe, or some kind 
of iron, and we haven’t anything like that 
with us. No, I guess we ’ll just have to be 
cold. Well, nights don’t last forever. 
Let ’s get under some high rock and keep as 
warm as we can. There is n’t anything to 
do but to wait.” 

“If we had the sun, we could unscrew the 
top of Papa’s spy-glass and light the leaves. 
He showed me how to make a fire with that 
last summer. It ’s easy,” said Juliet. 

“If we had the sun, we would n’t need a 
fire,” Jack sagely remarked. “But that 
would help to-morrow. If we can’t find 
174 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


camp, we ’ll make a big smoke high up some- 
where, and then they ’ll surely find us.” 

Jack spoke with so much certainty that 
Jane and Juliet felt greatly cheered. To- 
gether they hunted up a sheltered spot where 
they could spend the night. 

They found just the place, beneath some 
scraggly spruces, and were busily engaged 
in clearing away the small stones, when sud- 
denly all three started up. Jane seized Ju- 
liet’s arm and they listened silently. Cin- 
ders, in front, gave a low growl. Across 
the mountains came a yap, yap, next long 
howls, and then a chorus, growing louder 
and louder every second. 

“Coyotes!” said Juliet. “Oh, I wish we 
had a fire ! Then they ’d never come near 
us.” 

“Well, we have Cinders,” said Jane. 
“We ’d better pile heaps of stones together. 
Then, if they do come, we ’ll have something 
to throw at them.” 

“Uncle Dirk says they ’re cowards.” 

175 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

Jack tried to make his voice very brave and 
firm. “I don’t believe they ’d hurt us, but 
two of us had better stay awake at the same 
time, and the other one can sleep.” 

“All right; we’ll take turns,” Juliet 
agreed. “Jane, you must sleep first; you 
are the smallest.” 

They huddled close together. It was 
quite dark now. The night was cloudy, 
there were few stars to be seen, and a wind 
was coming up. But they had chosen their 
quarters well, and behind the high rocks 
hardly felt it. Their eager eyes looked out 
at the night. At first they started at every 
sound, imagining horrors behind every rock, 
but gradually the darkness and peace of the 
evening quieted their nerves. The coyotes 
stopped howling, and they relaxed a little. 

“I ’ve found some prunes,” whispered 
Jack. “They were in my back pocket and I 
forgot all about them this afternoon. 
We ’ll divide them up. It ’s lucky I took 
so many. Let me feel and count them. 
There are seven,” he announced. “That ’s 
176 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

two each. We ’ll all take a bite on the last.” 

“Give that one to Cinders,” said Juliet. 
“Maybe he ’s hungry, too.” 

They munched contentedly, and after- 
ward felt a little better. Jane laid her head 
on Juliet’s lap and closed her eyes. She 
had n’t any idea of going to sleep, but she 
was a very tired little girl. It had been a 
hard day, and before she knew it, despite the 
haunting fear of wild-cat, bear, and coyote, 
she had dropped off. 

Juliet felt her head grow heavier and 
heavier. “She ’s asleep,” she whispered to 
Jack. Jack didn’t answer and there was 
silence for a long time. 

Finally Jack felt his head nodding and 
straightened up with a jerk. 

“We must stay awake,” he said to him- 
self. “Juliet!” he called softly. He put 
out his hand and felt for Juliet. She was 
curled around Jane, breathing gently and 
regularly. Jack sighed, “I ’ll let her sleep,” 
he thought. “I guess she ’s tired, too.” 

All alone he kept the watch, but soon his 
177 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

head began to nod again. He leaned to- 
ward the little girls, and slowly, so slowly 
that he did not fight against it, sleep laid her 
comforting hand upon him. Presently all 
three little babes in the wood were dreaming 
of home. 

But Cinders, lying at their feet, kept 
guard over them. He seemed to realize 
their need of him. Staring out into the 
night, his eyes bright and his ears cocked, he 
was ready to spring at anything that might 
threaten his dear ones. 


178 


CHAPTER VIII 


T HERE was not much sleep in camp 
that night. Aunt Jennie had cooked 
the children’s supper and had waited long 
for them to appear. She and Mrs. ver 
Planck had called and called, but no one 
had answered. Finally Aunt Jennie gave 
Just and Jan their supper, while Mrs. ver 
Planck climbed to Lost Valley to see if she 
could find any trace of the truants. She 
found only the sacks lying on the rocks, and 
coming down again, went directly to the 
cabin to ask Mrs. Goodfellow if she knew 
anything of their whereabouts. 

“What ! The children are not home yet ?” 
said Mrs. Goodfellow. “Why, where can 
they be? They ’re not on the lake trail, for 
Charlie and your husband came in that way 
half an hour ago.” 

“I ’m glad they are here,” said Mrs. ver 
179 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

Planck. “I ’ll run out and hunt them up. 
Perhaps, if they go out again on horseback, 
it would n’t take them long to find the chil- 
dren.” 

“But they ’re not here now,” went on Mrs. 
Goodfellow. “They could n’t find your 
horses on the north range, and they went 
right out again, over toward the south. 
Charlie said that maybe they ’d worked in 
around to the wagon-road and gone out. 
They ’ll stay out until it ’s too dark to hunt 
any longer.” 

“Our horses lost, too!” exclaimed Mrs. ver 
Planck. “Well, I ’m not worried over 
them. They ’ll turn up, though probably 
we won’t get off to-morrow. But I do wish 
those children would come in. Something 
must have happened to keep them out like 
this.” 

“It ’s absurd, perfectly absurd, that they 
have n’t come back before this. Most 
thoughtless of them, I call it. I hope you ’ll 
explain to them when they do come in that 
this must never happen again.” As he 
180 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

spoke Grandfather laid down the dish-pan 
in which he had been peeling potatoes for the 
cabin supper and paced restlessly up and 
down the rough, board floor. “Did n’t they 
know just how far they could go alone?” he 
went on. 

“They knew last year’s bounds,” said his 
daughter-in-law; “but surely they are not 
staying away on purpose, and they are prob- 
ably quite as anxious as we are. I ’m going 
up to the lake to see if I can find them 
there. Perhaps, if I call, they will hear me. 
Are your dogs around?” 

“No,” said Mrs. Goodfellow, “they went 
out with the riders. I ’ll just put supper 
on, and then, if your father will watch the 
fire and tell the others when they come in, 
I ’ll go out toward the river. They may 
have gone down that way.” 

They set out in opposite directions. Mrs. 
ver Planck hoped every minute to see the 
three children running down the trail to 
meet her, or to hear their voices in answer to 
her calls, but by the time she had gone the 
181 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

length of the lakes it was too dark to see 
easily, and reluctantly she turned back. 

“I ought to have brought a lantern,” she 
said to herself. “Perhaps they ’d see the 
light. Poor little infants! How scared 
they must be! If only something dreadful 
has n’t happened to any of them ; but maybe 
they have come in another way, and I ’ll find 
them waiting for me in camp.” 

A figure on horseback loomed up ahead 
and she broke into a little run. 

“Ohee! Ohee!” she called. “O Dirk! 
Are the children all right?” 

“Is that you, Mrs. ver Planck?” answered 
the rider. “It ’s Charlie. Your husband 
took a lantern and the dogs, and went up 
Lost Valley as soon as we got in. He asked 
me to come out after you. You go on in 
now, and I ’ll ride farther up and see if I 
can’t find them. We got the bunch of 
horses, anyway ; that ’s something. Funny 
how they wandered off, when they stayed 
right near the lakes all last summer. Can 
182 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

you find your way all right? Maybe you ’d 
better take my flash-light.” 

“No, thank you,” said Mrs. ver Planck. 
“You will need it, and I know the trail. 
What a lot of trouble we manage to make 
for you, Mr. Goodfellow. But please, 
please , find my babies!” 

“Of course we ’ll find them,” he comforted 
her. “The three are together somewhere, 
and they won’t come to harm. Even if they 
do stay out all night, it is n’t going to hurt 
them.” 

Mrs. ver Planck went back to the hillside 
camp, where she found Aunt Jennie crouch- 
ing over a little fire near the two younger 
children. Jan was n’t asleep yet, and as 
soon as his mother appeared he sat up and 
demanded news of the others. 

“They have n’t come in yet, dear,” she an- 
swered, “but Papa and Mr. Goodfellow have 
gone out to find them. Now go to sleep and 
don’t wake up Just. Send them some 
happy thoughts; I expect they need them.” 

183 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

For a long time they sat over the little 
fire. Grandfather and Mrs. Goodfellow 
climbed the hill and joined them, and to- 
gether they waited and waited. Manlike, 
Grandfather was filled with indignation at 
the trouble the children were causing, and 
the more he worried, the more he scolded, 
but he was just as anxious as the others. “I 
wish I were ten years younger ; then I could 
be of some help, too,” he remarked more 
than once. 

The mothers didn’t say much. There 
was nothing they could do except to wait, 
which, after all, is one of the hardest things 
to do. 

It was after midnight when they heard 
Mr. Goodfellow’s horse come down the trail, 
and Mrs. Goodfellow and Aunt Jennie hur- 
ried down the little hill to ask if he had any 
news. 

“No, we did n’t find any trace of them,” he 
answered their questions, “I only came in to 
see if they had perhaps come back and I ’m 
going out now the other side of Lost Valley. 

184 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

But it ’s next to impossible to see anything 
on a night like this. Just as soon as it gets 
light, one of us will surely find them. I met 
Dirk out on Folger; he was going around 
the mountain and may come on them any 
time. If I found the children at camp, I 
was to fire three shots; then he would come 
in. If he finds them, he ’ll light a big fire 
and bring them back as soon as there is light 
enough. 

Out on the mountain Mr. ver Planck, de- 
termined not to come back without the lost 
children, was keeping steadily on his search. 
He was hoarse from shouting, and after 
parting from Mr. Goodfellow, trudged 
along silently, listening intently for the gun- 
shots from camp that would tell him the 
children were safe at last. A long time 
passed and he did n’t hear them, so he began 
calling again, “Juliet ! J ack ! J ane ! Ohee I 
Ohee! Cinders! Cinders!” The collies 
followed at his heels, sniffing among the 
rocks. He could not explain to them what 
he wanted, and even if he had, they could not 
185 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

have helped him. Collies have wonderful 
eyes, far better than a man’s; and they de- 
pend on them almost entirely, for theirs is 
not the gift to follow a scent. 

“I wish they had n’t taken Cinders,” Mr. 
ver Planck said to himself more than once. 
“He would follow them. If only they 
are n’t buried under a snow-slide some- 
where. I must find them soon. Ohee! 
Ohee!” he called again. “Cinders! Cin- 
ders!” 

Farther ahead, in the sheltered corner un- 
der the spruces, the little white dog on guard 
over the three sleeping children suddenly 
lifted his head. He jumped up, listened 
again, and then, with a joyful bark and with- 
out a backward glance at his charges, dis- 
appeared into the night. 

A few minutes later a small white object 
hurled itself upon a lonely figure slowly 
picking its way among the rocks. 

“Cinders!” exclaimed Mr. ver Planck. 
“Thank Heaven! Now we’ll find them!” 

He tried to gather up the little dog, but 
186 




A BIT OF MOUNTAIN ROAD 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

Cinders, beside himself with joy, wriggled 
out of his arms and barking madly, sprang 
ahead, leading the way. The other dogs 
took up the call, and the mountain rang with 
their clamor. 

Back among the rocks Jane sat up with a 
little jump. At first she could not believe 
her senses, for the night before seemed a 
hazy nightmare. Then suddenly she re- 
alized where she was. The barking coyotes 
that had so scared her earlier in the evening 
were apparently very near. She clutched 
at her sister and gave a terrified scream. 

“ Juliet! Juliet! Wake up!” she called. 
“They ’re going to eat us up, and Cinders 
has gone!” 

Jack and Juliet sat up, experiencing the 
same horror on awakening that Jane had 
felt. They huddled close together, listen- 
ing, listening, and waiting for the worst to 
happen. Suddenly Juliet straightened up. 

“It’s not coyotes; it’s dogs, real dogs. 
It ’s Cinders ! Oh, let ’s call him to come 
back. Cinders! Cinders!” her cry rang 
189 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

out in the night, and they all gathered cour- 
age at the sound of her fresh, young voice. 

“Children, children!” came an answer. 
“Where are you?” 

“It’s Papa!” shrieked Jane. “O Papa! 
Papa! We’re over here!” Running out 
together, stumbling over the rocks, they saw 
the gleam of their father’s lantern coming 
toward them. 

“Don’t try to come,” he called. “Wait 
for me!” And a minute afterward he had 
all three in his arms. 

“It was my fault, Papa,” sobbed Juliet a 
few minutes later. “I wanted to come home 
by the lakes, and Jane did n’t want to a bit. 
So punish me ; I won’t mind — much.” 

“I think you have all been pretty well pun- 
ished,” said Papa. His voice was gentle, 
for he saw how nervously upset they were 
and what a strain they been under. “But 
it ’s been pretty hard on your mothers, chil- 
dren. You ’ll have to see what you can do 
to make it up to them when you get back. 
And it ’s a shame to have worried the Good- 


190 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

fellows this way. Don’t you remember 
what I told you about thinking? But come; 
we ’ll make a big fire. Mr. Goodfellow will 
see it, he is hunting somewhere near the 
Three Trees. He will tell them at camp 
that you are safe and sound, and as soon as 
it is light enough we will start back.” 

Four hours later three weary and wan 
looking children came into camp. Mama 
and Aunt Jennie gathered in the tired little 
spirits, and after a good dish of the nice, hot 
soup that Mrs. Goodfellow had ready for 
them, they rolled up in their blankets and 
went to sleep. It was so restful to be back, 
and they were so blissfully happy to be 
found again! 

The return trip had been postponed until 
the next day to allow young and old to re- 
cover from the strenuous night just passed, 
and the children were still sleeping when the 
grown-ups met for lunch. 

“I hope you ’ll take steps to make them 
realize how thoughtless they were,” said 
Grandfather, who had not quite forgiven 
191 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

the children the worry of the night before. 

“They have been pretty well punished, as 
it is,” said his son. “Of course Juliet should 
not have led the others where she was fairly 
sure we did not wish her to go, but they have 
all had an experience they will never forget. 
We must teach them more woodcraft, and 
I will give them a lesson in fire-making this 
very afternoon.” 


192 


CHAPTER IX 


E arly next morning, after a good 
breakfast of Mr. Goodfellow’s famous 
hot-cakes, the Blue Jays climbed on their 
horses again. Grandfather took up his 
reins, and they started on the return trip. 
The Goodfellows rode with them as far as 
the main road, and then waved a good-by. 

Back over the same road they went, and 
it seemed much shorter to the children, now 
that they knew the way so well. They 
lunched in Deer Valley, spent the night near 
the Dale’s cabin, and late the next afternoon 
were back at the beginning of the trail. 
Here Dixon, with extra pack-animals, was 
awaiting them. The riders stopped a min- 
ute, sleepy little Just was lifted to his moth- 
er’s saddle, and then on they went, for it 
was late and there was much to be done in 
camp. Aunt Jennie offered to stay behind 
193 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

and walk with Grandfather, for he was de- 
termined to come up and see their camping 
grounds. 

“Think I can’t?” he exclaimed, when his 
son told him what a steep climb it was and 
suggested that he stay down in the little 
hotel, allowing them all to return in the 
morning. “Of course I can. Just watch 
this Dutchman! It’s simply a matter of 
taking it slowly. You can come back and 
push, if I get stuck. I ’m going up !” 

More than four hours later he came slowly 
into the firelight. Mr. ver Planck had gone 
back down the trail with a lantern to help 
him, but he declined aid and made it all by 
himself. With a long sigh of satisfaction, 
he sank down on a rock. 

“Well, I ’m here,” he announced, “but 
never again! Give me a cup of coffee, 
Elizabeth, and show me where I can lie 
down.” 

During the ride back the little girls had 
planned a farewell party to Jack. 

“We ’ll have a tremendous bonfire,” said 

194 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

Juliet, “make some ice-cream, and maybe 
roast marshmallows, if Mama will get some. ,, 

“Let ’s invite the children down at the 
hotel/’ suggested Jane. “There will be a 
full moon next week and they can see their 
way down the trail or maybe they ’d bring 
their blankets and stay all night. When 
shall we have it, Juliet?” 

“The night before Jack goes away would 
be best,” said Juliet. “Grandpapa will be 
with us then, too; you know he and Papa 
are going the same day. They will take 
Aunt Jennie and Jack somewhere, so that 
they can catch a train, and then will go on 
to the ranch.” 

So the morning after their return the 
children started work on the bonfire. Jack 
was much taken with the idea of a party, and 
they all worked hard to make it a success. 
Papa helped them choose a good place, an 
open clearing near the lake, with a huge, 
dead stump near the middle, where there 
would be no danger of a fire spreading. 

“Use the stump as your base,” he told 
195 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

them, “and lay your logs up against it not 
too close together, so that the air can get 
through easily; then pile ever so many pine- 
cones around the bottom, and it will all burn 
up together.” 

Mama promised the marshmallows, and 
suggested that they ask the children and 
their parents to supper, cooking it them- 
selves somewhere near the bonfire. 

“There is plenty of deer-meat,” she said, 
“and you can have baked potatoes. That ’s 
easy, and I think they will enjoy it, and 
then you can make ice-cream for dessert.” 

The invitations were sent, and twelve 
children and some fathers and mothers prom- 
ised to come. They wouldn’t bring blan- 
kets, but a guide from the hotel would see 
them safely home. 

“What shall we do about the ice-cream?” 
asked Juliet. “We ’ll never have enough 
for every one.” 

“Bring down plenty of snow,” said her 
mother, “and we ’ll freeze it as we eat it. 


196 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

What shall it be? Junket and canned 
peaches?” 

The children agreed that that was the 
best, and Aunt J ennie offered to make 
enough of her cookies to go with it. 

The day came and great were the prepara- 
tions. Papa and Dixon had become inter- 
ested in the fire and had lent a hand, so that 
it had grown beyond the Blue Jays’ wildest 
dreams. 

“It ’s as big as a house,” said Jan, look- 
ing up at it with great pride, “and I guess 
there are as many as thirty sacks of pine- 
cones stuck around in it. It certainly ought 
to burn.” 

They were all hard at work the morning 
of the party. Grandfather was superin- 
tending the laying on of still more logs, 
dragged over by the little girls. Papa was 
helping Jack build a rock fire-place for the 
meat and potatoes. Even the baby was 
bringing over pine-cones and sticking them 
in here and there. 


197 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

“I ’ll tell you what, Jack,” said Mr. ver 
Planck suddenly, “we ’ll make it a sacrificial 
fire ! Where are those old clothes and boots 
you were going to throw away? My old 
ones are just about used up. I ’ll add 
them, and I ’m sure there are lots of other 
things ready for the fire. Now if I could 
get up there and string a wire across the 
top,” and he looked up. “I guess it ’s 
strong enough to hold.” 

Everybody was laughing when Papa 
finally finished his decorations. He had in- 
sisted on stuffing a pair of old trousers with 
grass, and they dangled from the top, with 
boots, shoes, and socks hung here and there. 
Every one had found something to add to 
the collection. 

The party proved a great success. The 
visitors came early, anxious to see the camp 
and get in a boat-ride before supper. They 
all helped with the cooking of the dinner 
and enjoyed the deer-steaks that Dixon had 
prepared. Perhaps they were n’t all cooked 
to a turn, but every one found them good, 
198 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


and that was the main thing. The potatoes 
came out hot and crisp from their rock-bed, 
and everything was well seasoned with fun 
and laughter. 

The children were most anxious to light 
the fire, but Papa made them wait until din- 
ner was over. 

“You ’ve no idea how quickly you will 
move back,” he said, “once that begins to 
burn. Better get all through first, and then 
we ’ll go up on the hill for the illuminations.” 

When Mr. ver Planck applied the match 
it went up in a mighty burst of flame and 
the company moved farther and farther 
away. 

“Red man make little fire, keep heap 
warm ; white man make big fire, go far away. 
Roast one side, freeze the other,” laughed 
one of the grown-up guests. “And by the 
same token I think that ’s the biggest bon- 
fire I ever saw ! You people must have done 
some hard work.” 

“Look! there goes the last boot!” shouted 
Jack. 


199 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

“And there goes the straw-man!” yelled 
Jan. “Oh, I wish it would last forever!” 

It was long before the last tall limb 
crashed down. The excitement of the chil- 
dren had subsided, and they were sitting near 
their elders, listening to the camping stories 
that were being told. One of the guests 
turned to Dixon, with a laugh. 

“We heard that you had some deer-hunt- 
ers up here. How about it?” he asked. 

Dixon chuckled. “So they told on them- 
selves after all ! Well, it was really too good 
a story to keep. It happened while the folks 
were away. I was doctoring a sick colt one 
day in camp, and two fellows rigged up for 
hunting came through. They were all ex- 
cited, and asked me if I ’d seen any deer. 
‘Sure,’ I said, ‘deer are all over the place. 
You ’ll find them behind every tree.’ ‘Well, 
maybe you don’t believe it,’ they said, ‘but 
there really are deer around. Why, we ’ve 
tracked them right here to the camp ! They 
must go through at night, when you are n’t 
watching.’ ‘Sure thing,’ I answered. ‘My 
200 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

dog and I, we sleep pretty sound; they 
might walk right over us and we ’d hardly 
notice them at all.’ They were kind of sore 
’cause I wouldn’t believe them, and they 
wanted me to come and see some of the 
tracks. There they were sure enough — 
heaps of them — and I had to admit that they 
certainly were tracks. ‘Some horned ani- 
mal,’ I said, and I kind of edged them over 
to where the goats went out that morning. 
They picked up the trail, — the goats had it 
marked good and plain, — and I followed 
along to see the fun and save the nanny- 
goats. Pretty soon we came to where the 
two of them were feeding, quiet as you 
please. And I wish you ’d seen their faces ! 
They were good sports, though. They said 
the laugh was on them, and no hard feelings, 
but I did n’t believe they ’d tell it.” 

During the excitement of that evening the 
little girls and Jack almost forgot that they 
were to say good-by in the morning. But 
the happy party came to an end, and it 
seemed to them that they had hardly gone to 
201 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

sleep before it was daylight and time to get 
up for an early good-by. They found that 
their grandfather had started down the trail 
very early, so as not to retard the others, and 
they saw their horses hitched to the long log, 
waiting for blanket and bridle, for they were 
all going together to the end of the trail. 

“Oh, I wish you could stay until we all 
go home,” said Juliet, as they chatted to- 
gether on the ride down. “But maybe you 
can come out next year and go to the Yo- 
semite with us; that will be a fine trip. 
Let ’s begin to think about it now, and 
maybe if we think hard enough, it will hap- 
pen. Things do come that way, you know !” 

The Blue Jays stood in a little group 
around their mama, shouting and waving 
a good-by, when finally their guests were 
packed and ready and Papa had started the 
machine. 

“Good-by, everybody!” called Jack. 

“Good-by, Aunt Jennie! Good-by, 
Grandpapa ! And come back soon, Papa !” 
called the children, and feeling blue, indeed, 
202 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

they turned their horses’ heads up the trail 
towards camp. 

“It won’t be nearly as much fun without 
them, Mama,” said Juliet, mournfully. 

“Never mind, dear; think of all the good 
times we ’ve had together. Changes have 
to come, you know. It will be time for us 
to go home pretty soon, so make the best of 
the next few weeks. We ’ll have to have a 
little school again; we have been having such 
a long vacation.” 

The days sped by. School in the morning 
made the afternoon’s play doubly precious. 
In a week Papa was back again, and they 
had more lovely rides together, visiting all 
the lakes they had counted from the cliffs 
on that ride to Lake-of-the- Woods when 
Jack had distinguished himself. Papa could 
not stay long, for it was the beginning of the 
busy, bean season on the ranch, when the 
crop was cut and threshed. 

“Let me know if it gets too cold to be 
pleasant,” he said as he was leaving. “I ’ll 
come up for you any time.” 

203 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

The children had given up their daily 
swim, for the air was crisp and cold, and al- 
most every morning there was ice on the lit- 
tle brook. There came a day or two when 
the wind blew fiercely, dishes were swept off 
the table, and they had their meals in the 
supply tent. 

“A little more of this and the snow will 
be flying,” was Dixon’s comment, and he 
looked worried, for in case of a hard snow- 
storm it would not be easy to get the horses 
out. 

He was a good prophet, for not many 
days later they woke to find their beds cov- 
ered with snow and a white carpet spread 
over the ground. 

The Blue Jays came to breakfast with 
long faces. “My hands are cold; my toes 
are cold,” was the general plaint, and the 
baby was very decided. “I want to go 
home; I want to go home!” was his cry. 

“I think it ’s time we were all flying home. 
Look who ’s coming over the hill, children!” 
said Mama. 


204 


DIXON AND A PACK HORSE 






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THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 


“Papa! Papa!” was the joyful shout, 
and they dashed out to meet him, little Just 
toddling in the rear. 

“However did you know we needed you 
so much?” said Jane. 

“My, you ’re not ready to go home, are 
you?” asked their father in a surprised voice. 
“I thought you liked the snow. Here you 
can have ice-cream for breakfast without 
having to go a step to get snow to make it 
with ! How about it, Mama ? Is it pack-up 
time?” 

“We ’re all packed and ready,” said his 
wife. “But how did you get here so early?” 

“I came through in the night,” he an- 
swered. “They told me in the valley that 
the roads were blocked with snow, and I be- 
gan to get worried. I brought two men to 
help Dixon out with the stock. They will 
be here soon, and the quicker we start, the 
quicker we get there.” 

Dixon hurried off for the pack-animals. 
Mama and Papa rolled the blankets, and the 
children started together down the trail, 
207 


THE BLUE JAYS IN THE SIERRAS 

leading the goats. They knew the way well 
by this time. It was good-by to the little 
lake where they had had such happy times, 
and to the lovely hills all brilliant with the 
reds and yellows of autumn days. 

The car was loaded down with goats, sad- 
dles, and blankets. They climbed in, and 
soon were off. Home was ahead, and after 
all, “There ’s no place like home!” 


THE END 






























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